Legacy of Kain: Absolution
by Kojiokida2
Summary: From the gates of heaven itself and back again the journeys of Raziel and Kain intertwine once more as the two of them face a struggle for survival against the pantheon of the Wheel of Fate, demi-gods who will stop at nothing to destroy them. Finished
1. Prologue

(I won't lie to you, this third instalment was a nightmare to get right in planning. Defiance style, hopping back and forth from character to character was easier in my old story Restoration but I was just making it up as I went along there. With this series I have been planning every step so make the story parts relevant and interesting. I hope I succeeded here. Enjoy)

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"_**A wise man once said; 'do unto others as you have done unto yourself.'**_

_**Never has a phrase been more apt.**_

_**I had sent Raziel tumbling into an abyss but he had done the same to me in another lifetime, which only now had caught up.**_

_**And so I went as he had gone, tumbling into oblivion to meet my fate.**_

_**But like him I too survived. **_

_**Like him, I too would rise again.**_

_**My heart still beats… but not in my chest."**_

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The sky was a deep blood red, marked by the thick black columns of smoke rising up from fires in the distance. The smell of roasting flesh was a constant miasma and its taste on the tongue was choking.

For miles around lay the scattered and broken corpses of many races. Hylden lay collapsed on the ground alongside silent and still winged vampires, locked together where they had died struggling in mortal combat.

Siege weapons with their human crews were broken and shattered atop rocky cliffs, their bodies draped over the timbers like rag dolls. Many of them were on fire, burning to add to the smoke coming from ravaged settlements across the land.

Blood from the thousands of bodies that stretched across the land turned the ground into mud and rivers of the scarlet liquid ran down from the battlefields to empty out into the sea far to the south.

Standing defiantly on the edge of their vast battlefield of the dead was the only settlement in view from the horizon that was not on fire. The Hylden defending it were battered, bleeding and exhausted but still very much alive. Their families and young were here and there was nowhere else to flee to. Even the youngest of them were manning the walls some with the crudest of weapons.

During the battle the line had been pushed and pushed, the terrible slaughter forcing them to retreat more and more; but not this time. They had been pushed this far but no further.

The defenders of the Hylden settlement locked eyes on the zealots that were preparing to attack; the black winged terrors that came to kill in the name of their abysmal god. They stood there in their swarm, just staring back at them; waiting and waiting. Slowly night began to fall and with it came thick gathering storm clouds that seemed to boil up out of nowhere. Thunder rumbled in the distance several times before it began to rain; a sudden heavy deluge as if heaven wished to wash away the grime of the battle.

There was a flash of light from the middle of the zealot's encampment and the Hylden defenders watched in terrified awe as out of that flash stepped another winged figure. Seeing this new arrival the vampire zealots immediately bowed low to him even sinking down onto their knees in the mud.

The new arrival was glad in golden armour that fitted to his body perfectly and even forming shield guards up and over the rim of his wings. Attached to his left arm was a triangular shield formed of blades and in his right hand he held a long spear shaped like the curve of a bird's wings. This he set into the ground and with his free hand he removed his helmet, revealing his black bangs that framed a face full of cruelty and a fanatical zeal that eclipsed any of the others.

All knew him and responded with either adoration or fear, for he was Raziel-Divus; the scribe of heaven.

"None defy what fate degrees." He declared in a booming voice, overly loud so that the Hylden might also hear him. "Defiance of death is rewarded only with death." He picked up his spear and pointed it forward towards the Hylden barricade.

"Warriors of the Wheel of Fate!" The vampires around him stood up in response, eager blood lust clear in his eyes. "Give them their reward!"

With an answering howl filled with fanatical devotion the winged Vampires burst into the air, a flock of carrion birds not content with waiting for their prey to die.

The fire that rained down upon the Hylden was the fire of the righteous and it was pleasing at the eyes of the servant of god as he beheld the glorious slaughter and accepted it in the name of the lord as worthy tribute.

The fires of the Divus burned and still burned.

The burning fire of Divus' wrath had been an agony to endure, to be mercifully quenched by the numb embrace of the white oblivion of the void. To be honest if this experience was intended to be akin to the nightmare he had cast Raziel into it was quite disappointing.

A moment of pain and then blissful depredation; hardly a punishment in the physical sense of the word.

What was worse by far was the damning, intrusive thought running continually through his mind. Divus had beaten him and then sent him cascading beyond the veil of time to drift forever in nothingness. He would never be able to fulfil his desires now. He would never see Pillar's restored; the land of his native time neither turned green and lush again nor see his people delivered out of the depths of their devolved madness. That certain knowledge was like a knife twisting inside him and suddenly Kain's numbness here was indeed an unrelenting torture.

Why had she betrayed him? It had been the Seer who had cut off his route of escape, forcing him into battle with Raziel's first incarnation. It was the only thing in his mind that he could latch onto. He had to ponder it out or risk being driven insane by the thoughts of defeat.

Desperately he called up the words she had said to him before she had disappeared.

'It was a choice between the well being of my people or your own.' What had she meant by that vague attempt at an excuse? Had Divus threatened harm against the Hylden race and with them held hostage against her cooperation?

Had it been something more personal? There was no way to be sure but he pondered that question over and over, forcing himself to analysis intently. It would do no good wondering what might have happened if he had been able to slip past her and escape with the Serioli into the future. With them he would have created a new empire around the pillars and on the ruins of the old to stand against the machinations of the cephalopod deity, a guardian force to forever be watchful for signs of corruption.

Kain cursed himself for such an idealistic foolishness. He should have known it would not be that easy. He had lost the battle and with it the Reaver. Without the sword in his hand he was powerless against the agents of fate.

And then, he felt hands upon him, a shock of recognisable sensation cutting through the numbness, drawing him in like a hooked fish. He offered no resistance to the pulling and indeed he had no strength to fight even he were inclined to.

Slowly he was drawn back and back, floating through the void and opening his eyes; Kain caught sight of some distant shape; a filmy indistinct grey haze somewhere off in the unending white all around him.

Reaching out, perhaps instinctively, Kain reached out and as he did so the white all around him began to change; turning to grey like forged metal and then darkening and darkening. It became pitch black and an impenetrable darkness that swallowed up everything around him and Kain was no exception, falling into unconsciousness far more profound then the earlier numbness.

And then he was swimming, floundering like a helpless child in a darkened womb. There was liquid all around him, but not water for against his skin it was soothing and nourishing. It fed life back into him, life that he had been sourly lacking.

As strength flowed back into his body Kain's eyes snapped open and he saw himself, floating deep in a pool of red liquid; a liquid that was more then familiar

Sweet life giving _**blood**_, the provider of strength for all vampires. It soothed him, healing his wounds and he opened his mouth and gratefully let it all flood down his throat even as he began to swim upwards towards the light shining down from the surface far above.

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"_**From the depths of the abyss I rose, swimming up higher and higher towards the light; that beautiful light that was my salvation."**_

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As he swam the burns and scars inflicted upon his ravaged body began to disappear, fading away to be replaced once again by strong muscle and toughened skin. Even his long white hair began to re-grow, spreading out behind him as he swam.

As such he was fully restored by the time he broke the surface.

Unveiled from the blood around him, the light stung, stabbing into his eyes and he was forced to shut them as he clumsily made his way forward, swimming with the skill of a floundering child over to the side of what he perceived to be a deep cone like stone pit.

With a loud crunch his talons bit into the solid surface and coughing hoarsely, he hauled himself up onto the edge. He left one leg dangling in the blood as he struggled to regain his breath, his body rippling with renewed strength.

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"_**And so once more I lived. The agents of Fate had come for me but I had cheated them again. This was turning into a hobby."**_


	2. 1  Kain  Surface

**_Book 1: Fanum-Divus_**

**_Chapter 1: Surface_**

Grunting, Kain stood up and took several long and deep breaths to calm himself and steady his body. Glancing down he studied himself. His skin was unblemished from the burns Divus had inflicted upon him although perhaps he did feel a bit stiff in places. What could not be restored however were his clothes. His imperial drape and its strap, which he had worn so proudly, had been burnt away along with his leather wrapped gauntlets. Thankfully his pants, for modesties sake, were more or less intact.

The only parts of his attire to escape unscathed were his shin guards and the strange telekinetic enhancing gauntlet that he had found in the village near the Serioli fort.

The band of ribbon he had used to tie his hair back was gone and so it hung loose over his shoulders and across the left hand side of his face.

His physical appearance however was not what troubled him. Deep inside him, where the sensation of a beating heart was lacking, there was a dull persistent ache. Kain had gotten used to the void where his heart had once been but this was far different, a physical low pain mixed with a mental anxiety.

It was a nagging reminder that something was missing, something very important.

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**_"I awoke to find myself in a strange place, a deep tomb of stone and darkness. It was familiar enough to be welcoming." _**

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The pool of blood from which he had emerged lay in the exact centre of the chamber, which was a rectangular shape with a stone archway directly in front leading up to a flight of stairs. The walls were plain mostly but the buttresses that held up the flat ceiling were elaborately decorated with angelic iconography; winged beings with cloven hands and feet holding up the burden above.

It was then that he noticed the bodies. Lying crumbled in heaps off to one side were piles of corpses, all of them human and raging in different ages. There were men, women and children amongst the dead and the way their arms and throats had been cut it was clear that it had been their blood that was used to fill the pool.

"Oddly hospitable of them." Kain muttered to himself, striding over to examine the bodies more closely. They had all been stripped of clothing and lay naked against each other but they all had one thing in common. Branded on the back of their necks was the symbol for eternity, the 'Moebius Ring'.

Frowning, Kain turned to face the entrance. Just where was he and who had decided to save him, restoring him by sacrificing all these people to breathe new life back into his shattered frame? A question that definitely needed answering, sooner rather then late.

Then he remembered… the sword.

The Soul Reaver.

He glanced around quickly but was he expected it was nowhere to be seen. Divus had indeed taken it.

Kain began to swear inventively. By now Divus would have given it to Moebius the Time Streamer, who in turn would deliver it to William the Just; where it would play a part in events. How was he supposed to proceed without the blade now that it was a part of pre-destiny?

He had to get it back somehow but how was he supposed to do that without causing a paradox?

"One mystery at a time." He said through clenched teeth and proceeded towards the open doorway. The stairs angled upwards a short distance before opening out into a curving stone corridor with more of the carved angel buttresses supporting the flat roof.

There was a faint metallic smell in the air that lingered on the tongue like zinc. Proceeding down the corridor, still dripping blood from his bathing, he could feel the air grow warmer and warmer until he could feel the heat through the soles of his feet.

Finally the corridor came to an end in a door, twice his height but narrow. Engraved into its surface was an elaborate design; showing an angel again with cloven hands and feet; but this depiction was slightly more familiar. The angel had short hair and carried a triangular shield on his left arm.

Kain scowled at the imagery of Raziel-Divus and then in a moment of irrational anger, he kicked the door open.

What lay beyond stunned him right back into stasis.

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**_"I stood between two abysses, one white one black, a pillar between the ether and the void."_**

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In the distance was the whiteness he had endured below, acting like the sky it seemed to go on forever.

Below, perhaps in place of an endless sea, was the darkness which he had perceived before. Pitch black, so dark that it seemed not even light could escape its emptiness.

Kain stood upon a stone ledge, a part of a massive city complex that wound up and up stretching between the ether above and the darkness beneath.

It was an impossible construction, something that should not exist and yet here it was before his very eyes.

"What is this place?" He found himself asking, glancing up and down craning his neck to see the city soar impossibly high above and infinity far below. It was a metropolis that seemed endless, expanding out far above in a series of overhanging buildings that blocked out sight of anything further above. This is towering impossible city go on forever?

Inadvertently, Vorador's words came back to him. He had said that those who served the false god were elevated above mortals to some higher place, a heaven reversed for the faithful and pious.

And then of course, what had Raziel-Divus said in that moment before their fatal duel? He had called himself a servant of the one true God and king of Fanum-Divus, castle of the demi-gods.

Fanum-Divus. In the old tongue it translated as 'holy city'.

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**_"And so I came to behold the city of the angels, a structure that stands beyond the veil of time itself; the capital of my enemy's power."_**

Below him was a wide boulevard of stone framed by stone buildings with metal extensions, wider then the canopy above and the heat that filled the air seemed to rise from several large circular opens which Kain could see from his vantage point. There were people down there, hundreds of them all working around the metal buildings. Kain watched him scurry around like ants and came to the conclusion that he was observing some kind of alien smithy, blacksmiths all carrying hot metal too and fro from place to place and having others forge it into various shapes. He glanced first to his right and then to his left, noting the true scale of the level and as far as he could see there were humans busy working.

It might be easy to hide amongst them at least until he could devise a means of escaping this impossible place.

But who had brought him here in the first place? Certainly not Raziel-Divus who had meant to leave him drifting in the ether.

Kain slide over the side of the stone rail and down a slopping way until he came down behind one of the buildings. He remained in its shadow, moving silently with his senses alert.

The humans working here were of many racial stocks that seemed to be blending together into one. They were olive skin and had brightly coloured hair, the most common colour being a golden blonde. Even their eyes were golden and so their overall appearance had an almost strange metallic quality to it. Seeing them all in a crowd was almost akin to watching a moving wheat field.

Kain frowned from the shadows. Like those corpses he had seen before they all had that infinity sigils engraved on the backs of their necks.

Edging closer Kain could see what they were doing. This slave race, for he could think of no other term, were in the process of the mass production of metal artefacts ranging from weapons, to armour to custom building materials. There were no markets, no shops or places of trade; every building was devoted to either housing or production.

Nor did these people seem overly sunken by their enslavement, in fact they carried on with it with neutral expression and some even chatted to one another as they worked. It was as if this brutal work was all they knew and as such they were adapted to it.

Slipping in through the back door of a metal side extension, Kain came across a man busy at what was clearly a makeshift forge. He was big and heavily muscled and was occupied hammering metal on an elaborately carved anvil. He was making what seemed to be swords, curved oddly in an oriental style. He had a table and barrel of water to one side where finished blades had been left to cool.

Kain didn't hesitate. He simply stepped up behind the man; clamped his hand over his mouth to prevent him from crying out, grabbed his hammer hand in the other and then bite down with a crunch into the neck.

After emerging from the pool of blood Kain had no real need to restore his strength but the nagging sense of weakness in his chest had not gone away and perhaps a surplus of energy to call upon might help.

Once the man was drained, Kain let him drop to the floor. Quickly he dragged the body in under the table and pushed the barrel in front of it. He did not want his presence to be known just yet to either his enemies or those who had rescued him. At least not until he had secured for himself a stronger position then the one he now occupied

He lingered there for a moment, surveying the dead smiths work. Now that he was in the light from the forge he could see that stacked on the walls of the room on shelves were complex pieces of armour in many verities and shapes.

Feeling naked with his usual attire destroyed, Kain helped himself. He did not take much though, just a replacement gauntlet to cover his free arm and some greaves to strap across his thighs.

The armour, once attached, fit surprisingly well and was made of light metal so Kain's reaction time was not slowed either. The bracer across his arm was segmented in places up to the elbow and allowed him to flex and provided some balance against the Serioli Gauntlet on his other side.

The greaves were also segmented and dark grey, a perfect colour match for his pants and covered up some of the more obvious tarnishes they had suffered.

"Better." Kain observed but would not be happy until he could find a replacement for his imperial drape.

**_"If I had thought Meridian a maze, compared to Fanum-Divus it shrank into pathetic insignificance."_**

Built of stone and metal, the impossible city was an expansive labyrinth so large that Kain began to suspect he could wander its lowest levels for centuries and not cover even a portion of it.

How long had it been here? For a city this large to be constructed the process of building it must have taken eons if indeed it was complete and construction work wasn't going on elsewhere.

The streets, if they could be called streets, were patrolled every ten minutes by regiments of homunculi, the terracotta soldiers of the Divus. They marched in perfect unison not a foot out of step as they walked. The golden hired slave race moved aside for them as they came by almost unconsciously, perhaps having done it so often so for so long it was second nature. The sheer amount of these dolls disturbed Kain immensely for they were a fair indication of the kind of army his enemy could wield against him.

That disturbed him more was the fact that he saw no other living beings beside from the humans, not even any animals in their quarters and more importantly, no sign of any of the overlords; those who sold themselves for the Wheel of Fate in exchange for power and immortality.

In order to avoid the homunculi as they patrolled, Kain descended down into round cylindrical area that had no immediate function. It was perhaps about fifty feet long with a metal grill floor suspended over a long drop down.

Directly above, thick and steaming molten metal was channelled down 3 channels in the curved wall to fall into a gathering pool far below. This was the source of the near unbearable heat and Kain felt himself begin to sweat as he past through it.

Suddenly, stepping out in front of him and blocking his path came two of the slave race. They were big men and their expressions of stern forcefulness gave Kain the distinct impression that they had been expecting him. A moment later, two more stepped out of the shadows of an alcove to cut off the way he had just come.

More came out from other entrances, perhaps around twenty in all and all keeping him trapped.

"You have no idea how badly this can go for you." Kain remarked slowly, his eyes moving to count each of them in turn. None of them held weapons but they did have their smith hammers at their belts.

He no longer had the Reaver to rely on but that did not diminish his own skill in the slightest. If necessary he could tear these men apart with his bare hands. "Move aside."

One of them directly in front of Kain shook his head.

"Our patron saint wishes to have words with you." He said. Before Kain could react all of them took a surprised step backwards as there was a brief green illumination from directly overhead.

Kain swung his head up and then backed off, fangs bared and talons raised as a figure dropped down onto the space before him.

The woman, for the shape was clearly feminine was of middle height, perhaps a head and shoulder shorter then himself. Her jet black hair was longer, reaching down to calves and left to sway freely. Her skin colour was a very pale white and her eyes, barely visible beneath her very long bangs were dark lavender. She wore leather with metal armour across the shins and arms up to the shoulders, all of this hidden beneath a thick woollen grey cloak.

Her image was familiar and after a moment Kain linked her visage in his mind. He had seen her image once before, back in the Vampire Citadel. He had found a temple there and beheld murals of the deified saints the Vampires revered.

This woman had been one of them.

"I am Ophiel-Divus." She said; her voice firm and her eyes glinting. "Patron saint of mankind."


	3. 2 Raziel Gate of Divus

**_"Standing before the gates of heaven, I am bared from entry._**

**_I am fallen, undesirable._**

**_They would see me and all who stand before them wither and be no more._**

**_Let them sit upon their ivory pedestal and cast their damnation at me._**

**_They can do no more to me that has already been done._**

**_I am the blade, and the blade is me._**

**_I am Raziel- the Soul Reaver."_**

**_._**

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The were no words capable of describing the tumbling journey, the twisting and constricting sensations and the assault on the mind as it tried desperately to cope with being in the past, present and future seemingly all at once.

This was existence in neither the spectral nor material realms and perhaps as close to omnipotence was any ephemeral being was likely to come. There was no up nor down, no front and no back; there was simply the oneness of time beyond time and place beyond place.

There was no sound in this realm, nor feeling, nor sight or any other physical sensation. It was a sensory depredation that plunged Raziel not into utter darkness but a void of nothing but white.

Unable to control his body, the blue wraith tumbled end over end; tossed on ethereal winds he could neither feel nor see.

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**_"The ether was almost more then I could bear, it's numbing miasma blinding me to anything that might lay around me. Grimly I pressed on, delving deeper and deeper into the void."_**

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The further he travelled into this place of utter nothingness, the more he could feel it slowly seeping into his very being. It was as if he were being assimilated into the void, his essence undoing itself to become one with it. He fought against it, gathering his very self back to himself. It felt like raking sand back together only to have the tide come and wash it away again.

"Raziel!"

With a start he turned his senses inward, noticing the plight of the travelling companion that he had almost forgotten. Bounded to him by the forging of the Reaver in the Vampire Citadel; Ariel's spirit was joined to his own. Existing in a mere state of energy as a spirit she was far more at the mercy of the void's devouring affects then he was. He at least had something physical to cling to.

Even now he could feel the bound between them beginning to slip. Quickly he reached out with his mind, locking onto hers fiercely to anchor her in place. She clutched back with her own essence; desperation clear in the gesture. Ariel had been in such abject misery for so long that now she had found some purpose to her existence she was loathed to give it up.

"Stay with me, Ariel!" Raziel told her, turning all of his attention now to keeping her latched to him and as a consequence parts of his own self began to spin off into the void. It was a burning decent but very different from the fall through the Abyss for the lack of physical pain. This eroding of self was for abstract and in some ways worse.

But Raziel endured. He had fallen through a torment once before and he could do so again.

Falling and spinning, he and Ariel clung to each other like frightened children; torn where the void buffeted them.

And then, as if bursting forth from the surface of a deep pool, Raziel found himself flung out into stable space. All in one sudden rush he could feel himself; all sensation flooding back in a flash that left him hovering there in mid air gasping and shuddering.

He was falling, so he had direction and instinctively he grasped as his wings. Catching them they seemed to catch air; so there was air here, and he began to glide.

He hung there, kept aloft by the augmented gliding ability that he had taken from the Hylden Marduk, gathering his wits.

Kain had been half dead when Divus had cast him into that and Raziel had barely endured it, even knowing in part what to expect. Perhaps Kain's persistence stubbornness might see him through it but it would have taken all he could muster.

Slowly the blue wraith opened his eyes.

At first he did not understand what he was seeing. His vision was blurred after the fall through the ether and he blinked several times to clear it. It did not help but seemed to make the impossible thing before him all the more real.

Slowly Raziel's eyes widened as he saw before him a city so cast that it defied imagination.

.

**_"As impossible as I knew it to be I found myself approaching the incredulous sight. Before my minds eye swam all the visions and imagery I had ever seen depicting the divine place, the heaven to which all priests from time immemorial have prayed. Before me was that place."_**

**_._**

The city was like a pillar, formed of countless buildings all working in harmony up towards a pure white void above and seeming to disappear into it high above. Below the city descended, tapering off an unimaginable distance towards a similar void below; pure jet black. The structure lanced between the black and the white voids, joining them like a bridge.

At the middle point between the two abysses; the city fanned out, expanding to a wide disc with many structures jutting out reminiscent of jetties on a pier. Looming above them was a construction formed of several hundread dozen buildings, forming the image of a winged Ancient; kneeling down with wings spread wide. The massive likeness held its arms up and clasped in its hands was a stone disc that had to be at least a mile across. Engraved onto that disc was the 'Moebius' ring; the symbol for infinity.

Seeing what he saw through his eyes, Ariel stared at the spectacle with him.

"A city beyond time and space." She said in awe, her essence still tightly holding his. She seemed in no hurry to loosen her grip. "The city of the Angels."

Heaven.

This is heaven?

The question ran through Raziel's mind over and over, forcing him to contemplate an idea he had discarded eons ago. The idea spouted by human priests, of a divine place of reward for the faithful, had been something that long lived worldly vampires had dismissed as little more then desperate superstition conjuried by a species with a horribly short lifespan.

But this was not heaven, certainly not the rose tinted simplistic idea of it. From the memories he had gleamed from Kain, Raziel could indentify this place all too well.

This was Fanum-Divus, the city built by the ascended demigods loyal to the Wheel of Fate.

"If Kain is here, I pity his ill fortune." He said and tilting his body forward, he began to glide towards the city that was the heart of the enemy.

The city, as it began to grow with his approach, was more otherworldly then heavenly. It fitted the description in visual appearance but the sense of it was brooding and dark; as if gathered here were century's worth of suppressed frustration ready to pounce. It was almost like the feel of a wound up spring.

The size of Fanum-Divus gave Raziel some hope. Even if this place was where their enemies gathered, it was large enough for Kain to remain undetected for some time. It was a small hope but it was encouraging enough.

Absently Raziel glanced down at the front of his chest. Yes it was still there, un-comfortingly close to his skin. The Nexus Stone was held fast to his clan drape; the only item that could return both him and Kain to the real world.

At least it would if he chose to believe the Seer. How much he believed her was still an unanswered question, considering she had manipulated him into killing off her competition for control of the Hylden people.

Under the circumstances however he had little choice but to trust her sincerity at least in this matter.

.

**_"The city was so large that it defied my minds ability to conceive of it. How long has it stood here in the ether, or does time really have any meaning for this place at all?"_**

**_._**

Slowly he past in front of the massive stone representation of that kneeling angel and now that he was closer to it he recognised the face.

It was unmistakably the visage of his former self, the Divus. Raziel did not know how this first incarnation would be born again as a human, but as he glide past the mile length face he began to wonder how the egotism required to erect such an absurd thing could have been a part of his original personality.

He personally would never have even thought about creating something this foolish, never mind begun building it. Had the repeated cycle of death and rebirth washed it away? From Ancient to human to vampire to wraith to sword and back to wraith. Could the process have been not a degradation but an evolution, a growth away from an insecurity that required his face to be idolised so disgustingly?

"If I had been told before that I would come to heaven itself to rescue the man responsible for my purgatory at the Pillars, I would have thought the informer quite mad." Ariel's dry comment, echoing in the vaults of his mind brought him out of his thoughts.

He was passing over the lip of the thick rim of the 'dock' area he had observed from above.

"As would I." He said, wondering afresh at the cosmic joke of his errand while he began his quick decent down to the buildings. Kain himself, if he indeed still lived, would have a good laugh on his account for this.

He landed, skidding a short distance before coming to a stop. The stone under his feet were like ice, cold and slick. As if the sensation were a reminder to his body he suddenly became aware of how cold it was. The air, if air existed here as it did in the real world, was bitingly cold.

Frost covered the stone walls of the buildings, giving the true stone of the city a marbled appearance. From a distance this might look like heaven, but close up its ugly flaws were revealed.

Cautiously Raziel began to move forward, his eyes slowly sweeping the buildings around him. They made what could be called streets but they were narrow and crooked, twisting around to no apparent purpose.

What unsettled Raziel was the utter lack of activity. There was no one in sight, no sign of movement at all. He might well have expected at least some of Divus' homunculi to be standing guard.

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**_"It would be foolish to assume that my arrival in this place would go unobserved."_**

**_._**

Could most of the city be deserted? He dismissed that idea as soon as it occurred. He refused to believe he could be that lucky.

Suddenly there was a loud clinking noise, the sound of chains being pulled. Startled he spun about to se that a section of the floor behind him was sliding to one side; revealing a deep pit going down inside. Once the trapdoor had slide to onside, silence descended again.

After that moment of silence had past, Raziel began to very slowly approach the opening. It was utter darkness beyond, the light from the white abyss above penetrating only a few feet.

The instinct saved him. Arching backward an instant before the attack came, he watched as the dark savage figure flew out of the darkness at him and sailed overhead; the claws on its forelegs narrowly missing the tip of his nose.

Dozens more creatures followed the first, scrambling up a horde over the edge to confront him.

They were dog like creatures, hunched over with forelimbs longer then their back legs. Their front paws were more like hands, ending in long black claws. Their mouths dripped with thick saliva, running over their long jagged teeth.

They were covered in fur, sweeping back from a wolves face down over their muscular shoulders to a long bushy tail behind them.

.

**_"These snarling dogs fulminated out at the call from their master, feral beings spawned by the creativity of only the most depraved minds."_**

**_._**

Raziel backed off quickly but not quick enough. The werewolves, for he recognised their breed the moment he saw them, moved to almost instantly flank him.

His back against a wall, Raziel narrowed his eyes glaring around at the creatures that had him surrounded. He counted about ten but there could easily be far more waiting in reserve.

With a determined dance he flourished his right arm and the Reaver blade, a restored weapon by use of Ishtar's soul, lanced out of his open palm and screamed; ready to devour the souls of those it strikes.


	4. 3  Kain  Patron Saint

The pale woman looked at him from behind her long bangs of black hair, her eyes contemplative and alight with an intense curiosity. Her regard was very much akin to that of an amused observer, studying something new and intriguing. Kain felt himself stiffening in indignation.

"The blackest nefastus." Ophiel said, as if repeating something she had heard elsewhere.

While she was at ease, her accompanying golden haired and eyed men of the Divus slave race were most definitely not. They kept their eyes on Kain and did not waver. Their body language said more. They were tensed and pale and their postures were of men on the verge of bolting but they grimly stood there, defying the clear impulse.

Courage was not the absence of fear but rather acting in spite of it and in this gesture Kain could recognise courage. That at least he respected.

"I confess, given the depth of your unsavoury reputation…" Ophiel leaned back with her face not showing any emotion. She hadn't smiled or frowned since she had started talking, her face a deadpan and her eyes making up for the lack of feeling. "I had expected more to look that." Her pale face glowed in the orange glow of the molten metal all around.

She was definitely human and obviously still not of the same race as the rest of them. Did her secondary affixed name of 'Divus' alter her upon receiving the status?

Kain glared back with equal intensity.

"I find no benefit in impressing you." He replied. Ophiel only raised an eyebrow in response as silence dragged on, their eyes never flinching from each others gazes.

"Perhaps not." She said eventually. "But you and I must have words."

Kain snorted derisively, letting his arms hang down by his sides. They seemed at ease but the relaxation was a mere illusion. He was just as tense as any of the humans around him and ready to react with lightning speed to the slightest hint of hostility.

"More then words if you're standing in my way." He said, his tone implying that unless she wanted a confrontation she would remove herself.

Ophiel did not move but her eyes went frosty.

"If you proclaim yourself a Divus then you have sold your dignity to the Wheel of Fate." He added, not so much as an accusation but more as a testing barb. While Ophiel herself did not react, the golden slaves did. Expressions of shock, terror and horror appeared on their faces although no sign of anger or outrage.

Apparently the slaves only feared the wheel and didn't revere it. That was useful information. Ophiel glanced once back over her shoulder at them and they stiffened, trying not to meet his gaze. Then she turned back to Kain.

"I serve almighty God." She said slowly and Kain found himself actually smiling.

"That's all I needed to hear." He said.

He released his tension in a spring, launching himself at her with talons forward. He blurred as he moved, hoping to catch her in the chest before she could get out of the way. Evidentially she had been anticipating the attack and dodged, ducking forward and rolling under him at the very instant he had begun to move. Rolling into her cloak she became a tight ball that he sailed over.

He landed with a clank of metal on metal, the grill he stood upon clattering against others. Otheil was back on her feet instantly as well, spinning around to face him with her cloak twisting around her body. Two daggers had appears in her hands, perhaps hidden inside her clothes.

No, now that Kain could see them clearly they were not daggers but an eastern weapon called a Sai; its three stabbing prongs held expertly by trained hands.

"You will not profit by such behaviour." She said, her face still not showing any emotion.

"I am under no illusions about that." Kain replied, his talons still spread wide and ready. "But if nothing else it will vindicate my sense of injury."

He came at her again, slashing at her side to catch her left arm. She parried him with her Sai, deflecting his talons with a spray of sparks.

Kain clasped her weapon, holding it immobile with one hand and slashing at her face with the other.

She bent backwards to avoid it but the tips of his talons caught across her chin, cutting deep and scrapping bone. Blood flew from the cuts and she let out a pained grunt.

She stabbed at him with the Sai in her free hand but Kain quickly dissolved into mist, letting her go to avoid the strike.

"Patron!" One of the golden slaves proclaimed in alarm, seeing the cut and blood on her chin. He started forward but Othiel glared at him, her eyes savage.

"Stay where you are." She told him in a flat voice and the man froze.

Kain solidified a sort distance away. He was used to fighting with a claymore and as a consequence had let his hand to hand combat skills lax. Still he was not without knowing the practise and put what he did know to good use now, slapping away a thrust as Otheil dove in for an attack of her own.

She was fast, stabbing at him over and over with her twin weapons; never twice in the same place. She managed to catch him twice across the chest, reminding him that he was still recovering from the brutal defeat Raziel-Divus had dealt him.

Deciding to end it quickly, he brought his leg up to kick her in the stomach. She dodged it and backed off, giving Kain the room he needed.

Gathering his energies he focused them down his arm and then out his palm, discharging a bolt of magical lightning.

As soon as he gave the power the command to act, it disappeared; the force sucked out in that very distant. It seemed to vanish from his body entirely.

.

****

"As I attempted to summon magical energy to aid me in battle, the effect was a disappointing shock. It felt hollow and puny as it had no weight behind it."

.

The affect left him breathing hard as he turned his palm up to look at it, dumbfounded. No spell he had ever cast had done this before.

He tried again to cast an energy bolt but once more the same negating effect.

Desperately he tried another spell and it too failed. Even telekenesis was negated, his mind unable to physically affect anything around him when he tried.

"Is something wrong black nefastus?" Ophiel asked, straightening up from her battle stance. "Does the fabled Kain the disruptor rely too heavily on transitory spells and incantations?"

Kain slowly looked up from his palm to her.

"You will find that in the holy fortress city of Fanum-Divus such things are impossible, negated. Only the powers of the Divus are permitted."

Kain did not understand how such a thing was possible in the first place but in response his lips pulled back in a snarl.

"All that has succeeded in doing is ensuring I kill you with my bare hands." He said, his voice tinged with anger.

He took a step forward and stopped, feeling a throb in his chest; a painful sensation that began to eat at his strength. He put a hand on his chest. The gesture didn't help and he strained, willing the weakening lethargic weakness to go away. The attack, perhaps brought on by the sapping of his magic was like a spreading numbness that ate at his reserves.

.

****

"Again there was that numbing weakness spreading from my chest, worse then before; a obtund sensation that left me stupefied. What was happening to me?"

.

"Enough of this idiocy, Kain." Othiel remarked, apparently not noticing his condition. He was grateful for her blindness to his weakness. She might have chosen then to attack but her pause gave him the precious seconds he needed to regain some control over his body.

"I dragged you from the Ether myself. I did not go to all that trouble to waste it in a fight." With finality she sheathed her Sai's inside her grey cloak and clearly did not mean to draw them again.

"Easy enough to say and difficult to prove." Kain retorted, breathing hard through his nose as to not show her how out of breath he was. "No one with the postfix of Divus to their name has given me cause to trust their word."

Ophiel took a moment to control her breathing, calming herself and relaxing her body; letting her cloak fall over her shoulders and hide her body.

"You speak of the King, Raziel-Divus; the Scribe of Heaven." She began. Kain stared at her.

A king?

Of course, he decided in retrospect, what else would the right hand servant of the false god be amongst the sycophants?

.

****

"I still found it hard to believe that Raziel, in another lifetime beyond that which I had known of him, had been effectively the King of Heaven itself. The Raziel that I had known had been so self-effacing that it seemed ludicrous and yet I could not deny what my own eyes had seen and body endured."

.

Had Raziel-Divus done something to him during the battle to weaken him this way? He thought back, pouring through the recollection of the confrontation in the Chronoplast.

He had been struck down, burned and then… Yes of course. Divus had literally torn the spirit of his future self out of Kain's body.

He did not understand how that could affect him so but he felt certain that had to be the route cause.

"When I pulled you out from nothingness I had at first thought you were dead for I felt no heart beat in you." Ophiel said, her comment strangely echoing his own inner thoughts. "After closer examination did I perceive my error. You simply have no heart to beat."

She approached him, cautiously slowly, her eyes wandering down to his chest and for the first time her face creased with an expression; a puzzled frown.

"And that is perhaps the most perplexing mystery about you." She said. "You are alive, blood is moving through your veins and yet you have no heart whatsoever. You are impossible and yet here you stand."

She was within arms reach now and gently she reached out and laid a finger on the left hand side of his chest.

"Something is keeping you alive but whatever it is it's not in your body."


	5. 4 Raziel Lycanthropes

The blue wraith rolled, plunging under the furious swipe of claws that passed mere inches from his skin. He tumbled into the beasts legs, knocking its feet out from under it. The werewolf collapsed to the floor, scrambling to get back up with a loud feral snarl.

Coming out of his roll, Raziel immediately sprang forwards breaking into a run. The creature galloped after him on all fours, the rest of its pack joining it as they came across the corner.

Raziel kept running, casting occasional glances back over his shoulder as the pack followed him.

What betrayed the next attack was a mere soft scrapping noise coming from above which Raziel's ears only just managed to pick up. Turning his upper body he moved just in time to meet one of the creatures as it dove from its hidden perch on the buildings around him.

In that spilt second there was only one thing he could do to save himself from being struck. The wraith pushed his right arm up to meet the diving beast and at the momment his talons met the fur he called forth his soul in the form of the Reaver.

The wraith blade burst forth , sliding effortlessly through the flesh of the werewolf and exploding out its back.

Flesh and bone fragments burst out to splatter against the stone wall on other side of the narrow corridor.

The werewolf let out a gargled cry with its body contorting into a death grimace as Raziel dropped it to the ground. When it died and its soul left its quivering flesh it was quickly absorbed by the Reaver.

Unlike before where the Reaver had been competition for the souls he needed to sustain himself, now that the blade was a projection of his own contemporary soul the energy fed him directly. The boost was just what he needed and he burst into a run again away from the oncoming pack.

He had killed many of them of course before he had been forced into flight but in the end there had simply been too many, all attacking at once and with such animalistic fury.

By now his situation was quite desperate for having fled so much he had become hopelessly turned around, unable to get any sense of direction.

Too late did he realise this was the point of this place. He was trapped inside a giant maze that had been created solely for the wolves to hunt their prey through. Perhaps the masters of Fanum-Divus tossed unlucky humans in to be hunted for entertainments sake.

Passing by an entrance to another passageway Raziel was only just able to turn in time as another three leapt out at him from the shadows; attempting to cut him off long enough for the rest of the pack to catch up.

One snapped at him with its huge jaws seemingly in an attempt to bite his head off. He ducked low to avoid it and a second came at him with its claws jabbing forward. Raziel caught its arm, grabbing its wrist and yanking it forward. The werewolf, perhaps a tad younger then the others, let out a startled dog like yelp in its pain and surprise as Raziel slashed it across the face with its talons. He didn't hit anything vital, missing the eye and only catching the nose but the beast stumbled back with ears lowered.

The third pushed past the inexperienced pup and came at him snarling with claws descending on his shoulders. Raziel slid back away from the lunge and back into the side of a wall, leaping up high against it.

With an acrobatic skill that only his thin skeletal body provided, he rebounded off the surface and high into the air. He soared up and over the werewolves head and then down its back, raking through muscle and flesh with his talons.

The beast let out a scream that was disturbingly human like and he kicked it in the back, sending it tumbling into the oncoming rush of the pack.

The few extra seconds of confusion amongst them was vital as he raced on but he was forced to skid to a stop as he came into another large open square like area. Other passages led off from the sides of it but he was quite sure they all eventually came back here anyway.

Set into the floor was another of the large trap doors that the pack had emerged from although this one was still shut tight.

There was a low menacing snarl from behind him and Raziel spun about, talons raised.

One by one the werewolves emerged from the passages, converging on him. He backed away from them step by step ready for the moment when they would all lunge towards him.

He did not fear death as his nature did not permit it but he was anxious to what would happen to him where his physical form to break. He could sense no spectral realm here as he guessed the realm of the dead did not extend beyond the rim of time. If he were to loose his manifestation here anything could happen to him.

To his alarm he felt the floor sway underneath him and glancing down he could see that he had backed up right to the middle of the trapdoor in the floor. It bent slightly under his weight. It was not bolted shut, just spring loaded and left to lie closed.

Four wolves sprang towards him all at once.

"No stop!" He cried. His attempt to reason with them was quite futile. For all he knew they were so much like animals they were incapable of understanding. If they did they were moving too fast to stop when they landed on top of him.

The trapdoor could not support their combined weight and it swung down, parting in the middle to let the five of them tumble down through the gap and into the darkness below.

.

**_"I fell for quite some distance, tumbling end over end so that I could not even glide to break my momentum. I could only hope to land on something soft."_**

.

Falling, they struggled desperately to free themselves from the chaotic tangle. There was a loud yelp that quickly died away as they hit something, one of the werewolves carried off.

Raziel kicked another in the chest and he was free, free to tumble and fall alone. He had the vague impression of stone walls flying past but he was moving too fast to make it out properly in the dim light.

He hit something with a loud crack and his body was knocked almost upside down from the floor, still falling. The sharp blow depleted a great deal of his energy reserves as his body repaired the damage.

His hands fumbled uselessly for his wings desperately trying to catch them and glide but they were billowing out above and well out of reach.

"Hold on Raziel!" Ariel yelled in his mind and a moment later…

*thump*

.

**_"Which against all odds I managed."_**

.

The shock of impact was still enough to leave Raziel stunned and he lay there face down on this soft material, arms and legs outspread almost comically.

It took him perhaps about five minutes for his mind to recover enough to force his body to move.

Groggily he pushed himself up, shaking his head and letting out a pained moan. His ruined body did not feel pain as much as others but that fall had indeed left him aching.

Raziel held a hand to his face, wanting to wretch despite the lack of intestines. It was the inertia that had been the most damaging.

He opened his eyes and looked down at the item that had given him a soft landing. It was a large leather sack about the size of a horse, stitched together in patches and tied up with rope to his left. There was enough dim light to reveal it was only one of perhaps a dozen such bags all laid out in a row, some up on thick stone shelves above.

"You are unhurt?" Ariel asked as he slid down to the top of the bag to the stone floor. Unlike the city above it wasn't cold down here. In fact the surface of the floor was surprisingly warm.

"I'll live." Raziel muttered indignantly, the dizziness still clogging his mind. As he came down from the top, his talons tore the fabric of the bag and its contents spilled out in a small cascade. It was dried grains of many types, barely, wheat, oats and more.

Raziel thought it odd that such things would even be needed in such a city much less desired.

On the far side of the room there was a doorway leading out. Light was coming in from beyound throwing long black shadows. The blue Wraith slowly made his way towards it, laying a hand on the stone all to steady himself.

When he got to the entrance and looked out at what lay beyond, he stopped dead in his tracks; his eyes widening to near white circles.

"My god…"

.

**_"The chamber that lay before me was massive beyond anything I had seen before. Stretching off into the far distance were boxes all stacked in precise order."_**

.

The chamber stretched on so far he could not even see the far end; stacks of crates larger then houses lined up in seemingly endless rows as far the huge arching ceiling high overhead. Metal stairs with thick steps ran up to walkways that reached each level, a complex of containers and platforms that reminded him intently of the layout of the interior of Janos' hidden sanctuary.

As if in a daze, Raziel wandered amongst the towering structures his eyes everywhere.

.

_**"When I got closer I perceived my error. They were not boxes. They were cages."**_

.

Each of the containers held different examples of animal life. Some of them had lounging beasts of burden, others small rabbits or rodents and some were even filled with water with fish swimming about inside. No two containers held the same type of animal.

"This is indeed a bizarre zoo." Ariel said sounding as perplexed as he himself as Raziel wandered alone through the strangeness of it all, noting absently cats, dogs, wolves, bears, a multitude of insects and animals unknown to him.

He stopped in front of one container and looked inside. The interior was filled with mud and water and stretched out inside were long animals foreign to his eye.

"I do not believe I have seen this thing before." Raziel said, kneeling down to look at the creature more closely.

It was squat, bend kneed with its belly close to the ground but long. It was obviously reptilian with its hide of thick scales, its tail long and vertically flat like a rudder. The creature turned its head to look back up at him along its snout and let out a short huffing noise, its mouth parting to show the jagged teeth.

It was certainly a new species to him for as far as he knew reptiles did not grow this large anywhere in Nosgoth.

"It is a called a crocodile." Ariel remarked to him absently. She had not chosen to manifest her ghostly form since they had arrived in his bizarre city but he could sense her essence, her presence, all around him, "It is too cold on the Nosgoth mainland for it to survive so you would not have seen it."

Raziel stared at the creature, meeting his gaze before shaking his head and looking up at the multitude around him with clear puzzlement. There had to be nearly if not all examples of animal life contained kept here. The collection was incredible. It explained the grains in what he guessed now had to have been a storage room with access to a loading pit, a way to deliver and store the food needed to feed these odd exhibits.

"What is the point of all this?" He asked.

Neither Ariel, nor the crocodile, had any answer for him.

.

**_"And so we continued, walking amongst the tall cages and containers each on holding animals of intense verity; Ariel absently pointing out to me such beasts as Elephants, Bison, Anacondas and a myriad of others. I puzzled over this strange collection of life and its purpose in the city of the Divus."_**

.

Could this be another source of entertainment, this zoo? Where the masters of this city that bored that they had to devote so much to diversions? He supposed with so much space in this massive construction they could afford it.

Still this seemed too well organised to be a mere form of amusement for the Divus. These animals were being kept for a purpose but he could not for the life of him figure out what that might be.

Then he paused, tilting his head up and sniffing sharply.

.

**_"Suddenly the now recognisable scent of those beasts which had hounded me made itself known. A wet dog smell coupled with the tang of human sweat."_**

.

It was the tang of werewolf smell, strong and from all around. Quickly the blue wraith turned, seeing the beasts appear one by one emerge from the shadows amongst the stacks. Inside their cages the contained animals shied away from the entrances, huddling away.

What startled Raziel then was that amongst these werewolves came humans, or rather they looked human but they gave off the same wolf smell as the feral beasts in their company and showed no signs of fear at being so close. Many of them were armed with swords and axes.

"You go no further, beastie." The voice came from behind him, thick with a strange sort of archaic accent. The blue wraith turned and saw the speaker standing amongst a group to his left.

He was medium sized with a toned body covered in what Raziel saw to be whip lashes across his shoulders and arms. He wore little apart from a thick belt that held a tattered drape in place over his waist; the tartan pattern lost to wear and tear.

His face was square and his eyes a bright almost neon blue, glaring at Raziel from under thick red eyebrows. His beard was close cropped to his face and braided down each side of his cheeks.

Raziel was quick to realise just who these men where, if indeed the word 'men' was applicable for those in their situation.

"How well trained you must be to have such loyalty to your masters while in human form." He said; arms held out at his sides ready to fight.

The man with the red beard, who Raziel summarised was their leader based on how the others human and werewolf alike made way for him, snorted and started forward. There were manacles clasped around his wrists with chains that jingled occasionally as he walked.

"This has nothing to do with loyalty, demon." He said and there was a definite growling undercurrent in his voice, like the slowly building rumble of a wolves snarl. "I'll not suffer you near the territory of the Lycanthropes."


	6. 5 Kain Holy City

Kain absorbed her words, his face creased into a deep frown. He had always wondered himself what force kept him alive once Raziel had ripped the Heart of Darkness out of his chest. By all logic he should have perished there and then and yet he still lived.

There had been sufficient distractions between then and now so that the mystery had become a secondary concern and he had not thought about it too extensively. What was more was that the dull aching pain and weariness that had settled upon him seemed to be coming from the vacant hole left by his chest. The absence of a heart had not bothered him before so why did his body miss it now?

"It seems I am in need of assistance more then a duel." He was forced to admit, turning his head to look at Ophiel. She met his gaze blandly and as emotionlessly as before.

"You retrieved my broken body, even though your king and your god put me there in the first place." He began intently turning to face her completely. They stood within arms reach of each other but the tension had gone from both of them and the golden haired humans in audience to their conversation relaxed somewhat.

"Why?" Kain asked.

Ophiel shrugged.

"For the one thing that truly occupies those here in the city of Fanum Divus." She replied. She reached into her cloak and produced a small broach about the size of her palm. Engraved upon it was a polished icon of an open eye, directly in the centre of which were the pupil should be was the twisted Moebius ring.

"Politics." Ophiel added and Kain understood instantly that the emblem was the symbol of a faction.

Different factions existing, even permitted here? It seemed ludicrous.

"You would risk the wrath of God for politics?" He asked her, arching an eyebrow in a quizzical expression.

Ophiel stared at him silently for a long moment and then rolled her eyes as if in resignation.

"Those in the mortal coil can be god-fearing as is proper to their station." She said with a gesturing nod towards the golden haired slaves that stood all around them. A few of them hung their heads and did not look at her for that remark.

"But those ascended to affix the grand title of 'Divus' to their name are beyond that." The hint of pride in her voice was unmistakable and Kain scowled for it. "We stand at the right hand side of our Lord and God and we may interfere with events in the corporal world as we see fit."

For a moment Kain processed what she had just said, the information filtering through everything he knew about the nature of the False God.

The laugh began as a low chuckle deep in his throat but then expanded, bubbling up out of him and growing louder.

The slaves around stared at him with wide eyes and stunned, confused expressions on their faces. Clearly his laughing was the last thing they expected.

Even Ophiel looked a little taken aback, her calm emotionless demeanour ruffled. She frowned, the action seeming to resettle her.

"And what may I ask, is so amusing?" She demanded. Kain ran a hand across his face, gritting his teeth to force himself to stop laughing.

"City of the holy angels… heaven itself… governed by such naïve fools!" He said, his chest still heaving with the effort. "The cosmic joke is almost too much to bear!"

Ophiel sharply turned away from him, sliding her faction pendant back inside her cloak with finality. Her long black hair covered most of her face hiding her eyes.

"Laugh all you wish, vampire." She said a tad bitterly. "You do not know what it is like here."

She made as if to walk away from him but stopped after several paces, spinning about and gesturing wide to the city all around them.

"Fanum Divus is a city of infinite delight for the ascended." She explained. "We enjoy power, immortality, eternal dominion over the bodies and minds of the faithful."

Now her emotionless state suddenly made sense to Kain and the laughter stifled in him and he regarded her afresh with this insight.

"And yet you are discontented." He guessed. Ophiel made no attempt to deny it and in some measure seemed pleasured with his perception.

"There is one enemy that not even the sweet diversions of heaven can drive away." She replied and now there was actual fear in her voice. "Boredom."

When Kain's inquiring look did not change she closed her eyes and tilted her head back, unwisely exposing her throat to him but Kain chose not to take chance of the opportunity.

"Eternal existence strains on us like an unbearable weight, a constant sour. We find distraction from that irritation in politics against each other, the more dangerous and controversial the better."

She raised her hands to her face and ran them down past her neck.

"It is that or we risk going mad!" She added and the Golden slave race shifted back uneasily, if they were listening to something they knew could get them into trouble.

.

**"Again the cosmic punch line was in fine form, for the city of the angels – the dominion of heaven, was suffering from the same affliction that brought low my own empire. With nothing left to strive for the immortals were growing decedent and stagnate in their minds and souls, precisely as the vampires who ruled with me had."**

.

Angels and demons had the same problems and could not, would not, unite to serve their common interest.

.

**_"I repressed an urge to laugh again only with some difficulty."_**

.

Instead Kain cleared his throat to get her attention.

"You did not truly answer my first question." He stated. Ophiel slowly lowered her head, her eyes coming down to meet his. Her emotionless mask was back again, a façade designed to protect a mind that was only human, from her hopeless state.

"No I did not." She admitted flatly. "It is not my place to discuss such things with you."

Her tone was subtly different from her state before and it seemed harsher, more critising. Kain felt himself stiffening with resentment. "My task here is merely to ensure you have recovered and that you remain here with the slave race who can sustain you, until you can be put to use."

Kain set his lips, realizing that they were finally at the inevitable confrontation of desires between them.

"Lord Asmoedus will speak with you when he pleases on these matters." Ophiel added and seemed to want to add more but he cut her off.

"Then clearly we have come to an impasse." He put in sharply "I have no intention of remaining here at the sufferance of whatever scheme a faction of blasé Angels has hatched."

Ophiel straightened her back and the tension was right back in the air again. The humans reacted to it, remaining where they were but straining, clearly wishing not to be here. It was only whatever hold Ophiel had over them culturally that held them in place.

"You have little choice." She replied. "I will not permit you to leave."

Kain snorted and turned to look at one of the humans blocking an exit. The man could be torn through to pass if necessary and clearly the human knew it, his face turning pale but he held his ground.

"Your permitting is not necessary." He said, overly loud in order to pass his words more to her subordinates then Ophiel. "Your choice is either to stand in my way or step aside. Which will it be?"

The human's eyes darted from his Divus to the vampire and back again.

"Do not do this Kain." She said from behind him. "You need only wait…" He cut her off with a gesture of one hand.

"We are done talking, Ophiel." He said with finality and then looked the man blocking his way full the face. "What is your choice?"

The man was frozen solid, his eyes staring past Kain pleadingly to Ophiel. Clearly the decision whether he lived or died rested entirely with her.

Ophiel tilted her head to one side, shaking it slowly.

"Your barbaric ignorance shows, vampire." She said coldly. "I need not stand in your way to impede your progress."

She made a gesture with a hand and the human salves backed off, their faces filled with an intense relief at being allowed to get of harms way. They backed off down the corridors and once they were a safe distance they began to run, the sound of their footsteps fading off.

Now it was just the two of them.

"I will find my way out." Kain said without turning around. Ophiel turned her back as well.

"If that is the way we have to play this then so be it." She took ahold of her cloak and pulled it tighter around her body, stepping forward. As she did so her body was surrounded by a pale luminescence and she disappeared into the midst of a translocation.

If she could teleport inside Fanum-Divus then clearly it was not magic but some other form of power. That left Kain at a great disadvantage here, if his enemies could use it and he could not.

.

.

**_"I didn't know what machinations worked in the upper echelons this of strange society that governed this impossible city but I would not leave myself at their mercy. I would find return to Nosgoth no matter how much Ophiel tried to circumvent me."_**

.

.

**_If Fanum-Divus followed logical hierarchy then the chambers and levels of the slave masters would be above. How much further above was still in question._**

.

.

**_"If Raziel-Divus had a means to travel between here and Nosgoth, as I strongly suspected from his confronting me in the Chronoplast, then I would make use of it But first, I needed to find a way out of the slave's level to ascend."_**


	7. 6 Raziel Two of every kind

The werewolf tackled him across the midsection and together they crashed through the opening of one of the animal containers, spilling the water and letting the fish that had been swimming inside flap out onto the floor helplessly. Some of the smaller werewolves, possibly pups, were less disciplined and went for the fish catching them up in their claws to eat.

Raziel hardly noticed, too busy sinking his talons into the werewolf that held him and forcing it off. The creature staggered back as Raziel slashed at it, letting go and giving Raziel a perfect opening.

The blue wraith stabbed forward with his talons, punching a hole directly into the beast's chest and into the heart. He grabbed the pulsing organ and then yanked it out, blood spraying out the wound and coating him in a thick scarlet liquid. The werewolf gargled and then collapsed down to the ground with a thud.

As its soul began to flee from its body Raziel drew down his cowl with one hand, exposing the glowing maw and drew in the spirit; swallowing it down and using its energy to galvanise his own.

Enraged by the death of their comrade, two more wolves darted in to attack him. Acting quickly Raziel ran right at them and just as they reached him, he slide across the floor and between their legs. He slashed them both across the legs with his talons as he past, cutting through muscle hamstringing them. The two of them stumbled to the ground, howling in pain.

Waiting there to meet him were five of those werewolves in human form, charging at him with swords and axes in their hands. From the way the wielded the weapons it was clear they were not just using old relics they had found but were trained soldiers. One of them swung an axe at his head.

The blue wraith ducked under the swing and kicked the man in the chest; the blow sending him flying up and over the tops of his fellows to crash into the floor with a resounding clatter.

Two more stabbed at him with swords but Raziel spun about, using that same leg to knock their feet out from under them.

"You move fast for a mixed jumble of bone and sinew." Their leader said, racing up towards him.

The red bearded man was athletic and fast, moving swiftly. His arms were held out to either side and as he moved they began to morph, fingers elongating and nails becoming serrated claws. Fur, the exact same colour as his hair, grew to quickly cover his arms up to his elbows.

Raziel was momentary taken aback. Having not encountered any werewolves before all he had to work with was obviously inaccurate folklore to guide him in his strategy. Nowhere had he encountered stories of them being able to affect partial transformations before.

Their leader stabbed at him with his claws, moving quick enough that not even Raziel's dodge could stop him to slicing him across the front of the chest. The claws did not strike deep, the scratches healing almost instantly using up some of his surplus of energy.

Raziel parried another strike with his own talons, slapping a hand away as it tried to stab at his eyes.

Each attack the leader made was aimed at what might be considered a weak point in any other opponent but there were little if no vital places on Raziel's body to strike. His body's uniform reliance of soul energy was his advantage and he pressed it, allowing himself to take a strike to the mid section.

Giving that blow away allowed him to get in close and bring his talons across the leader's face.

The human-werewolf was fortunate. Raziel missed his eyes but the talons raked across his nose, leaving long gashes.

He cried out, shutting his eyes as blood spurted into them.

Raziel would have followed up on that opportunity but two more werewolves, one in human form and the other feral, attacked from both sides coming to their leader's aid.

The blue wraith was forced to back off, sliding away. The two of them put themselves between him and their leader.

"This is our territory and you will not oust us here." The feral one snarled to Raziel's surprised. The shape of his jaw did not seem suited to speaking words and he, for the voice was masculine, seemed almost to chew the words in its mouth.

Slowly Raziel looked around, seeing the others of their pack close in to form a circle around him.

Fangs, claws, axes and swords were all at the ready to cleave him to pieces.

.

**_"I was cornered by creatures with speed and strength superior to my own, trapped in an unfamiliar place with limited resources at my command. Tactically, a strategic withdrawal seemed prudent."_**

.

He had already sensed the absorbing field in the city and its negating effect on his telekinesis. In order to break out of this encircling crowd he was going to have to do something more unorthodox.

He darted forward quicker than they expected him too apparently, judging by the startled look on the werewolf directly in front.

He leapt at the creature but not to kill, instead he called forth the gift he had taken from the Hylden house of War leader Shamash. His body flowed into that of the beast and he and it became one.

With startled oaths of utter horror the others drew back from their companion, hissing and snarling.

Possessing the body, Raziel found the feral shape very strong and agile; responding easily to his whims.

Only his natural state was quicker due to its lack of ligaments to get in the way.

"What demonic prey is this!" Their leader demanded, watching from nearby with a hand held to the wound on his face.

Raziel didn't give him and answer but directed the werewolf he was piloting into a galloping, passing through the startled pack and down one of the corridors between the stacks of animal containers.

The stunned surprise of the pack helped him as it took them a few moments to collect themselves before they could begin a pursuit.

Over long distances the wolf was faster than he was and with its speed he was able to cover much more ground, darting quickly through the containers evading the creatures and men following from behind.

Suddenly he came across something that might be his means of evading them. Set into the middle of a wider corridor was a sloping ramp of stone leading down into a lower level, the way lit by orange glowing orbs set into the walls.

Quickly he darted down it, feeling the wolf body he was inhabiting begin to decay. That was the drawback to this method of possession. Eventually the host body decomposed and collapsed into dust. Having run this body so hard it was beginning to fall apart far quicker.

The new corridor lanced down sharply and then levelled out; the glowing orange orbs casting long shadows.

Long howls from the end of the corridor let him know they were still trailing him and he forced the wolf to run faster. The act only sped up the decay, parts of the fur and flesh falling off.

Finally in the distance Raziel could see a large pair of stone doors; swung outwards and open.

He forced the wolf on, galloping harder and harder to try and outpace the pack following him from behind.

However his host's body stumbled as crumbling a leg fell off and it collapsed to the ground with a thud; much of its body breaking off on impact.

With a loud gushing of liquid the blue wraith clawed his way out of the body, bursting out of its back as fast as he could.

He tore his way out and ran on foot the rest of the way to the doorway, rushing through it. Just as he had hoped on the far side there was a stone pad marked with an icon the shape of a hand print. He had seen similar such devices in Vampire ruins so he knew their purpose. He slapped his hand against it, looking back as the stone door began to swing shut.

The pack behind tried to catch the door before it closed but none of them were fast enough and it closed in their faces with a loud crash and a solid grinding of stone on stone.

.

**_"With the door sealed the Lycanthrope creatures would leave me unmolested, at least for now. But this was their hunting realm and undoubtedly they would find a way around eventually. I had to keep moving and find some way of eluding them." _**

.

Turning, Raziel made to get away to find some other way out of this level and back up away from the territory of the wolves. He started, finding himself in another large room full of containers like the one above.

This room was not entirely the same though. The ceiling was much lower and there were less containers although still many.

Passing through them he also saw that they contained not animals this time but plant life, grasses, trees and bushes of all kinds. There was even a section he passed devoted entirely to flowers.

.

**_"This was no zoo. These chambers contained examples of all types of life, not just animals. Just what purpose did this collection serve?"_**

.

Just as he was coming to the edge of the chamber, Ariel's warning stabbed him quite sharply in his mind.

"Raziel, hide!" She said to him, urgently and with great insistence.

.

**_"I reacted without thinking, darting into the shadows at Ariel's warning. The instinct proved more fortuitous." _**

.

There was a gap between two containers just wide enough for him to squeeze in through and he did so, crouching low to keep out of sight.

There was a gap a short distance away, with a ramp descending down into another chamber perhaps. On the far side of his gap running alongside the wall was a stone platform which a large ornate door leading out from it.

In through this door came three figures, all of them blue skinned and black winged. Raziel's eyes widened at the sight of them. Ancient Vampires, just like Ajatar and Janos.

One of them was a large specimen with muscles that were overdeveloped and he did not bother to hide it, wearing a white robe that left his chest exposed. His black hair was short and might be oiled for the way it gleamed.

The one to the left was shorter and thinner but his blue skin was of a far darker tone then either of the other two. What really set him apart were the decorative tattoos marked down the right hand side of his face, spreading out from the eye.

The third one Raziel recognised instantly. There was no way he could not recognise him.

It was himself, his first egotistical incarnation; the prime servant of the Elder God, Raziel-Divus.

Seeing him the blue wraith kept very low, willing his own essence to shrink in on itself so he could not be sensed.

"The Ark's 'passengers' are almost all assembled." The one with the markings on his face was saying as the three of them walked past, glancing over at the containers on the over side of the gap. "A few species are all that remain unaccounted for. But Ophiel manages well on schedule."

His voice had a silky, rippling quality to it and Raziel could imagine him practising to get that elevated civilised tone.

"Then we are prepared for the Promised Day?" The big muscular one asked. His voice was more rough and deeper as if he was used to speaking only when spoken to.

"I would not go so far." The first said back with a lopsided grin. "Can anyone really be 'prepared' for that?"

He spread his hands and Raziel could see from his hidden position that he had silver braces across his forearms.

"We are as ready as we are ever going to be. I will say no more than that." The ancient paused and looked at Raziel-Divus who seemed to be looking down at the containers with a distant expression. "Mighty King, you appear out of sorts. Something vexes thee?" He asked and there was a mocking undercurrent to his tone.

Divus set his features into a frown and then spat.

"Ha! 'King' the very word is hollow." He said, turning to look at them both. "You all know my time is finite."

The little one looked like he was about to reply but Divus cut him off.

"I see my fate approaching with each step that blue ghoul takes. I cannot even find joy in the work of our Lord anymore."

"You must be strong, sire." The big muscular one said earnestly and with deep sincerity. "We all have our part to play and yours is the hardest and the most glorious."

Divus regarded him with a pleased smile.

"Your words are as soothing as ever they might be, Metatron." He said with some gratitude.

Metatron, if that was his name, bowed in acceptance of the compliment.

"Perhaps you might look upon the wraith's persistence as a testament to your own vitality, my liege." The smaller ancient put in jovially. "After all, while it may not have been intentional, you served the cause well as the cobalt ghost. The Soul Reaver was instrumental."

Divus shot him an agitated and disgusted look.

"Asmodeus, so far you have not considerably raised my spirits." He said flatly "The fact remains that I will not live … as I am… to see the coming of the Promised Day. For this I am distraught beyond my words abilities to convey."

This one, Asmodeus stroked his chin as if contemplating what words to use next to appease his king.

"Take comfort in what you have already accomplished." He advised then. "As long as the Scion of Balance is disposed of, what else really matters?"

Divus stared him down and then looked away again.

"Your fabled courtly tongue could do with polishing." Raziel's past incarnation said spitefully. A flicker of annoyance crossed Asmodeus' face but it disappeared quickly, hidden by a mask of polite attention.

Raziel-Divus was silent a few moments longer and then let himself relax.

"But you are right." He admitted. "Kain is gone. I should be content."

The three of them carried on walking out of sight around a corner, still talking amongst themselves but the words echoing far too much to make out.

Raziel waited until he could not hear their voices anymore and then slowly and silently pulled himself out of his hiding hole, staring after them

.

**_"To say that this did not bode well for my finding Kain would be an understatement. If my contemptible past self truly believed that he was dead then there might indeed be little hope."_**

.

Still, Divus had also thought that he himself had been destroyed after being pulled from inside Kain's soul. He had been completely surprised and dismayed when they encountered each other in the ruins of his old clan.

.

**_"No. I had to trust that the Seer had her reasons to believe Kain still lived. But overhearing this conversation only made finding him that much more vital." _**


	8. 7 Kain Nowhere and Nowhen

The slave level of Fanum-Divus was large only by the necessity of the amount of slaves living in it. The golden haired humans had little access to the central pillar of the city but roamed seemingly without restraint in the areas that sprouted out from it like the spokes of a wheel. It was arranged into four distinct districts each with a different purpose. One seemed to be a market place were the humans bartered amongst themselves for goods they had made, apparently free of any currency and exchanging goods or services for likewise.

Another was a residential plaza, a long series of rectangular corridors with many doors leaving to cramped living conditions. Here the homunculi were patrolling in force, perhaps to keep an eye on the slaves and to remind them where they slept of the power of their masters.

Thirdly a space seemed to be a garden, which perplexed Kain. It was a beautiful a series of horizontal levels with waterfalls fall in and around them. Thick green growth was spreading wild along the stones with some of the brightest flowers Kain had ever seen. Many of the slaves came here freely, some to tend to the gardening needs and others simply to look at the scenery.

Kain realised this beauty was intended to give the slaves something nice to enjoy to ensure their compliance. Upon that realisation the gardens beauty was instantly soiled in his mind.

The fourth region was given over industry, a complex of metal and stone production factories that put Meridian's old industrial district to utter shame. Liquid metal ran down long gutters where it was purified of contaminates and then forged by armies of the golden haired slaves into whatever was needed; pots, pans, swords and armour. Exactly where the ore for all this was being obtained Kain could not say but it was brought in and then refined in great vats high above the heads of the working men.

.

**_"Trapped as I was in this impossible city, I took to exploration. Othiel's eyes and ears, her followers amongst the golden slave race followed my every move despite all effort on my part to avoid detection."_**

.

He could not exactly walk openly amongst the people since he doubted very much the homunculi would leave him alone if they detected his presence but the humans either made a point of ignoring him entirely or stared their fill and then looked away when he turned to face them.

Ophiel it seemed have given instructions to her 'patrons' and they were curious. Eventually hunger began to gnaw at him, a hunger both for blood and information. As such he indulged himself and selected a pretty young woman in the market place. Her hair was a darker shade of gold and she smiled at everyone who came to trade for her pans.

Silently, Kain slipped through the back of the market stalls; his feet not making a sound.

When the back of her latest trader was turning away with their business complete, Kain lashed out with one hand and grabbed her around the throat to stifle any warning scream. Quickly she was pulled back through the clothe curtain and into his strong arms, pinning her to him with such force that she could not break free.

The vampire bared his fangs and bit into her neck, sweet live giving blood flowing up into his mouth.

He had no desire to kill her however and so he curbed his enthusiasm, only taking enough blood to blunt his hunger. Having lost blood the woman was weak in his grip, pale and trembling.

"What is your name?" He asked her, gently but quite firmly overwhelming her will to resist his questions. It was a subtle kind of mind control. He if wished he could easily rip her throat out and read her thoughts as he did for the information he needed but, apart from being more fun, this method was more 'humane' and he was in a forgiving sort of mood.

"Thalia." The woman almost whispered. She was like all the rest of the humans here, golden haired and golden eyed. Close up she looked less like she was made of gold and more like she was a stock of wheat.

"I grow curious." He said to her, eyes locking hers in a mesmerising stare. "Tell me Thalia, how long have your kind been living in this city?"

"W…we're not supposed to talk to you." She began, slowly shaking her head, recognising him apparently even so entranced. He laid a talon just under his chin and pressed the tip ever so tightly against her jugular; feeling it race.

"I won't hurt you if you answer my questions but it is a poor choice indeed to frustrate me." He told her in a deceptively soothing tone. "I advise against it." Even mesmerised she got the point and let her body relax.

"We… we have always been servants of the Divus." She said after a pause. "We exist to serve them, to make their weapons and build their monuments."

Kain regarded her limp body thoughtfully.

"Always?" He repeated. "You mean to tell me you society was born here?" If he could get a sense for how long the slave's culture was then he could put a date on the minimum age for the city itself.

Thalia paused again

"There… are fables." She said and Kain frowned.

"Explain." He asked.

The woman took a deep breath and the vampire noticed absently that she was still bleeding from the two holes he had made in her neck. He could not use magic to heal them so instead he cleaned them, ensuring that they did not at least get infected.

"It was said we once came from somewhere else." She said as he worked. "The story says that god himself spoke to us and told her to go to war against the dark ones. We answered the call and those privileged few were brought here to bask in the glory of servitude to the one true god."

For all the piety of the story she said it without any religious conviction as if merely reciting old lore, a casual telling of a fairy tale.

"Spare me the sermon, child. Is there any truth to it?" He asked her.

"I don't know that." She admitted "All our fables tell us our ancestors were called Seraphim."

Kain stared at her and then grit his teeth, the action making her flinch.

"Sarafan!" He almost spat.

"The word is… similar…" Thalia agreed absently, unconscious of the utter dismay her words had flooding through Kain.

.

**_ "This was not a pleasing revelation. From my journey into the ancient past I had learned that the order of the Sarafan had begun with Moebius' uprising army, which had called themselves the 'Seraphim'. If the members of this slave race were indeed descendants of that first army then by my own sense of time they had been selectively bred here for thousands of years, eons."_**

.

If his suspicions were correct this city was far, far older then even that long forgotten uprising, possibly pre-dating the ancient Vampire and Hylden war. If Raziel-Divus was the city's king and if Ajatar-Cadre was right in her accusation of his starting that very war then it made this impossible city the oldest structure to ever exist. Even the Pillars themselves were younger.

"Very well." He said in a fatally resigned tone. Nothing he could do about that now. He would just have to deal with circumstances as they were. "I desire a way out of your dwellings. Tell me where to find one."

Even in his physical and mental grip, Thalia shifted and stirred trying to fight him off.

"No!" She said her voice quite hoarse. "Othiel has forbidden that!"

Kain tightened his grip on her.

"You appear to have a petite memory, child." The vampire told her calmly and very firmly. "Did I not already explain how poor a choice it was to frustrate me?"

Thalia trembled, still trying to find him off despite the grip on her mind and body.

"She is our patron saint; I will not defy her will." She said with more energy to her voice, animated now that she was being brought into direct conflict with the will of her apparent mistress.

"You would die simply for her stubbornness?" Kain asked, half in surprise.

Thalia looked him in the face.

.

**_"The conviction in her eyes was all the answer I required to such a question."_**

.

Even under his spell she was resolute and defiant, unwilling to betray Ophiel's wishes even in the slightest.

.

**_"To what ends Ophiel went to ensure such obedience and respect from these humans I did not know but the fact that she did said much more for her character then I was perhaps willing to credit her with."_**

.

He would gain nothing more from her. He laid the palm of a free hand against her forehead.

"Sleep now child, I require no more from you." Kain commanded and instantly she fell into a very willing slumber. He left her tucked safely into a corner where she would not be immediately noticed until she woke up of her own accord.

What gave him heart was her unwillingness to discuss as way out of the slave level. If Ophiel chose to censor that information then there was a way in and out, possible more then one.

But he would have to be cunning about this. She would obviously have the primary routes well guarded and monitored.

That was when he remembered the perplexing arrival of ores that came into the smelting pools in the working section of the slave level. They had to be brought in from the outside, from Nosgoth itself most likely. If so then if he could trace their path back to their source he would have his means of escape.

Additionally such a route would be unusual and unlikely to be guarded well. It was as he suspected.

The ores came in on a cable car system akin to those he had seen in Meridian. Metal hovering trams on steel rails came in through a tunnel entrance, had their cargo removed and then followed the tunnel out again.

When one such tram came in to discharge its ore, Kain was there to take advantage. One good leap from the loading dock and he was scratching for a foothold on its curved tilted roof.

He sank his talons in to keep himself secure and hugged the surface, waiting out of sight of the slaves on the dock. He did not want them reporting back to Ophiel that he had left.

Once the unloading was done the tram began to pull away without any further delay, slowly at first but gaining speed as it pulled into the dark tunnel on the left hand side.

The tunnel carried on and on for some distance before finally it opened up and Kain found himself staring down at a blackness below.

.

**_"The void I saw was bridged by the cable car, the only seeming means of crossing the abyss to the far side. From what I could see the structure did curve up into the cities higher levels."_**

.

He secured himself more fully with his talons, looking up to see what lay ahead. The tram was running along a cable overheard that was hug from struts lancing down from the higher city levels.

Glancing back he saw the slave levels from the outside, puny compared with the rest of the city.

In the distance was another structure even larger then the slave's level, curving up in an arc the side of the central pillar to the higher levels above.

The two abysses once again stood out in stark contrast and as he stared at them Kain came to a strange epiphany. Without knowing why or how he knew exactly what these two voids were, their natures and purpose.

High above, the white void was quite literally everything: an ether that was complete omnipotence. It existed everywhere and 'everywhen' – all time and space combined.

The black void below was the exact opposite, a null expanse. Nothing existed down there, not even the stately progression of time itself. This void was the abyss of Nowhere and 'Nowhen'.

Fanum Divus seemed to lance the two voids, existing in the stable space between Absolute All and Absolute Nothing.

His philosophical revealing thoughts were interrupted by a loud moaning sound, coming from directly behind him.

.

**_"But it appears that someone, Othiel perhaps, had set silent watchdogs to ensure my compliance with the edict that I stay." _**

.

Dust collected on the top of the tram was beginning to churn, lifting up from the roof and spiralling around itself like a mini whirlwind. Dozens of just disturbances spiralled about, the dust collecting together in the middle and forms were taking shape.

Kain's body instantly went into a fighting stance for he knew what was coming. The dust collected, growing larger and more defined until dozens of homunculi stood facing him across the length of the tram roof; many of them armed with spears and massive shields.

An officer stood in front with sword in hand. The terracotta puppet raised it and pointed its tip directly at Kain, jabbing.

**_"_**_Mors mortuibus!"_ It declared, in the old Vampire tongue, a phrase that translated as 'death for the dead'.

The other homunculi quickly formed ranks, shields collected against one another tightly in a wall and began forward with synchronized steps.

"Ah yes… to start again where I left off with you mindless puppets." Kain remarked, with a toss of his head, white hair bellowing out behind him. He spread his arms, talons curved and ready to strike. "Truly gratifying!"


	9. 8 Raziel Tribes of the Wolf

Had Raziel not be so disturbed by overhearing such an ominous conversation he might well have sensed the attack coming. Instead he was caught completely by surprised, first by the thick man-dog smell that assaulted his nostrils and then by a blow that landed on him from above.

He crashed to the floor with a thump, the weight of his attacker pressing him down. He could see chains and claws pressing down onto his back cutting in his flesh.

"You move fast." A familiar voice said. Twisting his head, Raziel looked back over his shoulder to see the straining face of the Werewolf leader. Where he had scratched him not an hour before with his talons, there were now only thick scars. "I had to leave my pack behind to catch up."

Close up Raziel saw more details of the man's face. He had a red beard that covered the side of his face and chin but under his nose was free of hair. The beard was braided thickly on both sides of his head and tied off using black ribbon. Sweat from the exertion it had taken to catch up made his skin shin.

"I like that." He admitted blue eyes bright and alert. "It makes the hunt more exciting."

Bending his body impossibly back upon itself, Raziel slammed the back of his head into the man's face. Stunned the werewolf let go, his clawed hands reverting back to human appendages in his confusion.

"I hope you are entertained!" Raziel shouted in reply, scrambling to his feet and spinning about; smashing a kick into the man's belly.

The blow did less effect then he had hoped. The man only slide back a few paces and then pressed forward, displaying he clearly had more battle endurance then Raziel had.

The werewolf leader swung both arms up in an arc, the chains attached to the manacles around his wrists whipping up and crashing with a loud thwack into the blue wraith's chin. The force in that blow left him seeing stars and he swayed, toppling backwards a step.

"I am not as much entertained as I am intrigued." The man stated hoarsely, clearly out of breath; using the break in the action to gather some strength rather then take advantage.

It did not take Raziel long to recover and he leapt at the werewolf leader, talons raised to strike. The man ducked and Raziel sailed overhead, but he caught a hold of the red hair and using that as an anchor; swung himself up until he was standing on the werewolf's leaders shoulders.

Raziel was quite thin with the loss of several internal organs but his weight was still more then the man could cope with on his back comfortably. He toppled down onto one knee, cursing so badly in his accented voice that his words were thankfully unintelligible.

"Just what sort of unnatural blend has Abraxas used to create you?" He demanded, teeth clenched as Raziel held his hair.

"Who?" The blue wraith asked in surprise. The man's arm whipped up and Raziel looked down to see that one of his opponent's chains was now wrapped tightly around his ankle. With a sharp tug the man tore him off his back and slammed him into the floor.

"Do not play me for a fool, chimera." The man spat. "Only his mind could have conjured such a horror as you."

Raziel felt dazed as he hoisted himself back up to his feet, his body swaying like a leaf. That blow had severely drained his surplus of energy. He did not think he could afford to loose his physical manifestation while in this city. With no spectral realm here to take him there was no telling what might happen to his spirit.

"You are leaping to a conclusion I am not privy to." He said but the pack leader ignored him, rushing forward with arms outspread. As he ran his hands morphed again, taking on werewolf characteristics with claws and fur.

Raziel parried the strikes, taking several defensive steps back. The man pressed that advantage and launched himself at the blue wraith; tackling him around the waist.

The blue wraith tried to dislodge him but he held on tightly in an almost crushing grip.

Then the man reached up and stabbed with his claws at his face, presumably in an attempt to poke out his eyes. Raziel's head tilted back and the claws caught the rim of his clan drape instead. When the arm drew back, the pack leader pulled the cowl down directly before his eyes.

He saw everything, the missing jaw, the cavernous hole leading down into a near empty chest and the pulsing glow within where devoured souls disappeared when absorbed.

His eyes widened in horror and his face went deadly pale.

"What are you?" He demanded, letting off and backing off quickly.

Raziel took his drape back to his face, covering up the maiming again.

"Not what you think." He replied.

The pack leader swallowed hard.

"Aye. You might be far worse." He said and Raziel found this comment amusing enough to have a chuckle over.

"Possibly." He admitted. "But you'll have to make up your own mind about that."

The Pack leader ran a hand over his face, a nervous gesture and seemed to relax a little or at least he stopped shaking.

Silence endured between them for a long while and then the werewolf straightened and began;

"I am Ewoden, Emissary and Scout of the Lycanthropes." He introduced himself. The consolatory tone in which he spoke clearly outlined his words as something of a peace offering.

"I am Raziel." The blue wraith replied, accepting it. Hearing that name Ewoden blinked and stared at him even harder.

"Raziel?" He repeated. "Raziel-Divus?" The apologetic tone he had had moments before was completely gone, replaced by a way suspicion and unease. Raziel didn't blame him.

"Similar names only." He said. It wasn't exactly a lie for in his mind Divus no more represented his state of mind then Kain or anyone else did. He had rejected his past self once before and would happily do so again.

The sophistry was pleasant to entertain in his head.

"Why do I not believe you?" Ewoden asked anyway, maintaining his prudent distance.

"Perhaps because you are shrewd?" The blue wraith asked in return jest. It was far more pleasant to have a conversation then to resort to grappling he found. Despite being shaken and suspicious it seemed Ewoden was of like mind. He grinned back at Raziel with infectious good humour.

"You try to flatter me." The pack leader, or emissary as he called himself, stated. "If you **_are_** one of his chimeras then at least he does well to teach them proper behaviour."

The tension between them seeped away and the two of them visibly relaxed, the links of Ewoden's chains clinging against one another as he settled his shoulders.

"I find it odd that your kind dwell here." Raziel began with a raised eyebrow, an expression that gave the illusion of one eye actually growing while the other stayed the same size. "Werewolves have been extinct in Nosgoth for centuries."

The emissary looked at him with a puzzled expression

"Werewolves?" He repeated, clearly not understanding the word. Then comprehension dawned. "Oh you mean us." He said, laying a hand on his chest. "Is that what the rest of mankind started calling us?"

Raziel gave a little shrug.

"You're considered folklore." He said.

Ewoden's expression turned into an evil snort of sneer, lips pulled back over his teeth. Like a vampire he had enlarged canines.

"Monsters in the dark forests that raid innocent hamlets and villages I suppose?" He asked. "Something to be feared and hunted down?" Then that sneer vanished, melting away to reveal a tired and grim face that was so full of hurt that even Raziel flinched slightly.

"Aye, it's the kind of spiteful thing they'd say." He went over to the side of one of the containers and sat down, leaning against it wearily. "Make us monsters to frighten children and forget their role in how we are."

.

**_"Memories taken from Kain illuminated me to their plight without need for verbal explanation. During the human uprising against the Ancient Vampires, the rebels had employed mutant wolf and human hybrids as cannon fodder. These creatures had been the first werewolves and while their own dark curse had not been as successful in propagating itself as Vampirism it had left its mark on recent times."_**

.

Raziel considered the dejected Ewoden for a long moment.

"Ironically a similar a tale you share with the vampires your kind were created to hunt." He eventually concluded out load. Ewoden snorted almost like a dog and managed a smile.

"Aye and a bitter joke it is too."

He looked down at the palms of his hands. They were totally human having reverted back to normal after the fight had ended.

"We are like vampires." He said very slowly as if saying this was not pleasant but he wanted to make sure he said it correctly the first time around so he didn't have to repeat anything. "I don't know if some element of the dark gift was used to make us but there are similarities."

Raziel's quizzical expression prompted him to explain further.

"We're immortal, we have a blood hunger similar to theirs and we can not reproduce naturally." Ewoden told him. With the enlarged fangs in his mouth Raziel didn't doubt that.

"But unlike vampires we fear neither water nor sunlight and while in human form we would be completely indistinguishable in a crowd."

Adaptive creatures indeed, the strengths of the vampires, the initiative of humans and the guile of the wolf all rolled up into one.

But of course the wolves that Kain had encountered in the past had been far different from the cultured, advanced Lycanthropes Raziel was interacting with here.

"But of course that's not what the rebel Guardian, Moebius, wanted?" Raziel asked him. "Is it?"

Ewoden's face hardened.

"No." He replied in a voice tinged with a mixture of betrayal and anger and Raziel knew that his theory was correct.

He waited for Ewoden to speak of his own volition. The emissary kept o looking at his hands for a long time and then raised his eyes.

"There's nothing to mark day and night here so I've lost track of time in this city of angels. I can't tell you how long I've lived now but before…"He raised his left arm higher and held it up for the blue wraith to see more clearly.

His skin had many old scars crisscrossing one another.

"...before I used to be a slave, working under the whip of blue skinned taskmasters who had me and a work gang excavating marble to rebuild their cities after some war." He said. "I was born into bondage, raised to be miner, stone cutter, toiler; anything the master asked of me."

He waggled the shackles still attached to his wrists to emphasis what he was saying.

"Then Moebius came and did his fancy preaching. Told us we could stop being slaves." The emissary turned and spat in disgust. "Told us this was the age of Men."

"You were a fool to believe him." Raziel told him flatly.

"At first all he wanted were our sword arms." Ewoden carried on as if there had been no interruption. "His army toughened us up, made us soldiers."

A faint smile parted his lips.

"We even won a few battles. We were few but we were proud. It seemed so much BETTER then being a slave."

Raziel had been many things over the course of his strange multiple existences but he was quite thankful that a slave had never been one of them.

Ewoden's face began to darken again.

"But it quickly became clear all we'd done was exchange one harsh master for a far worse one." He said. "He must have had his eye on us for some time I think. Moebius set about thirty of his best soldiers apart, me being among them, and herded us to an abandoned village north of the fighting and the battles."

He paused.

"Abraxas was there waiting for us." He said. His hands were beginning to shake in front of him. "He called us prototypes and then…"

He stopped, unable to carry on. The memory had to be too terrible judging by the pale colour to his skin and his trembling body.

"Dear god the things he did to us." The emissary said with a shudder, voice thick with very sincere raw terror, a horror that could never be washed out of his mind. Raziel knew the feeling. It had felt that very same terror as he had fallen from the cliffs to the waters of the Abyss.

Ewoden paused to collect himself.

"I don't know why I'm telling you all this." He admitted blandly.

"Because, setting our pride aside, it feels good to share our pain with others." Raziel said. "That I know first hand."

Ewoden sighed but the action seemed to improve his spirits.

"Yes… yes it does." He agreed.

.

**_"I let him continue and listened. Vorador had lent me a friendly ear and after telling him everything, baring my soul, the experience had left me feeling cleansed and purified. I would be a poor student indeed if I did not allow others to learn this lesson."_**

.

"We became…dogs." Ewoden was carrying on. Then he stopped again, frowning as if searching for a better phrase to use. After a moment he shook his head and made a cutting gesture with one hand. "Dogs, there's no other word." He confirmed sharply and with disgust.

"Strong, loyal, furiously pack animals to hunt down their hated prey. Only ten out of thirty survived that experience and the bastard still called it a success." Only with some difficulty did the emissary manage to get his rancour under control.

"In time more were changed to fill some quota and we were used to sweep the land clean of the blue skinned Vampires." He said quietly. "The memories are hazy, like remembering a nightmare, but I think I was there when they look the Capital Citadel. A blood bath like no other."

Memories inherited from Kain, who had been there during his trip into the ancient past, were a little sketchy at best. He only had momentary flashes of imagery frozen in his mind. Most of them were about blood so he had no reason to doubt any account Ewoden might give of the events.

"I'm just glad I can't remember any more then that." The emissary added as if reading his thoughts. "After the battle was won we weren't needed anymore. Most of us were put to death. A few escaped into the wilderness and the 'prime specimens' Abraxas took with him to become part of this… gathering."

He gestured up and around at the containers stacked high above them with one hand.

"It took us decades I think but we learned how to master our mutation and we evolved the skill of changing back and forth between our forms."

Raziel narrowed his eyes, staring up at the containers.

"Gathering?" He asked. "You mean all these boxes?" Ewoden nodded in reply, tilting his head to follow Raziel's own gaze.

"He's been adding to the collection progressively for years." He said. "I imagine he's almost done."

The blue wrath scowled and turned around fully, taking full stock once more of the enormity of this collection of life.

"What is all this?" He asked.

Ewoden raised an eyebrow looking at him silently. Then he rose back up to his feet.

"It's what they want to preserve when the 'Promised Day' arrives." He said. "The day Nosgoth drowns."


	10. 9 Kain Angel of Greed

The homunculi shield wall parted just wide enough for their spears to jab forward; stabbing directly towards Kain's chest. Their points neared the skin but past not through flesh but through mist, the vampire's body dissolving into vapour that past harmlessly through their weapons.

Swiftly the mist slide past them, filtering through the gaps in their defence. Behind their backs it condensed once more; Kain emerging out of his unique dark gift and slammed his talons into the backs of two homunculi.

The stinking liquid that filled up the terracotta soldiers burst out from the wounds, splattering down over Kain's arms. He drew his hands back and let the two puppets collapse to the tram roof with a clatter.

Another came at him from behind with a sword but he dodged the swing easily and with a backhanding jab he knocked the weapon out of the homunculus' hand. Unarmed, the puppet tried to attack him with mere fists. Kain contemptuously punched the homunculus in the face, caving its head in.

"Mors Morturbirus indeed." He declared almost jubilantly. "For death is mere entertainment for the dead!"

Unfazed by the words the remaining homunculi closed in to flank him, one on the left armed with more spears and another with an axe. Dimly Kain realised he hadn't fought a homunculus with an axe before. Those to the right had short swords all held in perfect unison, the movements identical.

They came at him all at once. Kain struck them first though, quickly tackling a homunculus with a sword and crushing its head in his grip. As its grip on its blade slackened he grabbed the weapon and spun, lashing out at a homunculus stabbing at him from behind.

Its head was sent spinning away from its body in a smooth arc, trailing its liquid insides. Kain grabbed the body and swung it around, smashing it with all his strength into three homunculi with shields held protectively together.

The four of them went flying over the edge of the tram with a tremendous crash and vanished from sight.

Kain called those of the homunculi who had more elaborate armour 'officers' because they stood apart from the battle and seemed to be directing it more then participating. He did not know whether this was so as homunculi had nothing inside their heads but liquid but the one who had arrived with the others had refrained from entering the fight so far.

It was standing off to one side beside the metal hook that kept the ram upon which they all stood attached to the rail above.

By now Kain had cut their force in half. Only six regular homunculi were left now. Quickly reduced to five as Kain sliced one across the belly with the sword he had acquired, cutting it in half.

The officer seemed to come to a decision as another of its soldiers fell to Kain as he ran it through the chest, cleaving upwards until it rent it apart at the shoulder.

It turned and then became climbing the metal claw, grasping onto the rivets as handholds to pull itself up. Kain kicked a homunculus down at it tried to run at him and looked up, seeing the officer climb higher and higher until it reached the top.

One there and secure of its footing it took out its own blade.

Kain recognised the very real danger he was in immediately.

Desperately he leapt up, catching a homunculus on the shoulders and using it as a stepping stone he vaulted up onto the metal protrusion. The vampire began to climb as fast as he could, struggling to get to the officer and kill it.

The officer ignored him and began to slash and saw at the cable above with the blade. The cable itself was made of twisted metal and the swords the homunculi used were probably made of the same material.

It only took the thing about three sharp tugs for its blade to severe through the moving cable. The line snapped, whipping like a struck snake back upon itself. The tram began to fall.

Kain reacted on the only instinct that came to mind in that frozen moment of panic. He leapt as high as he could go, reaching out until his hand connected with the retracting cable.

His talons tightened around the cable and he was torn away, flying through the air. He shut his eyes and clung to the cable with all his strength.

He must have flown for some distance at some speed for when he connected to the stone wall it seemed to jar every bone in his body. He felt at least two ribs fracture and another break completely.

If he had been human the impact would have killed him. Dazed from the crash, Kain struggled to maintain his grip on the now thankfully slack cable. Reaching up painfully with his free hand he clasped onto it, slowly pulling himself up.

The vampire had fed well upon leaving the slave level and his surplus of energy began to mend some of the damage. His head cleared enough so that he could look back.

The tram was still falling, tumbling down with the homunculus falling with they tumbled, down and down until…

.

**_"Few events in my time have left me as shaken as this, watching the void consume the homunculi. They fell through not into a chasm but into oblivion, passing into the darkness and ceasing to exist." _**

**_._**

As they struck the black abyss below they vanished, crumbling to utter dust the moment they made contact. Then even the dust shrivelled and vanished so that within the space of a single instant nothing was left.

Kain was left slightly shaken by the fact that he had narrowly avoided sharing their fate.

Grimly the vampire set himself to his task, pulling himself up along the wall with the dangling cable as his lifeline. He had to hurry.

.

**_"With the loss of my watchers whomever Othiel answered to would know I had escaped. If I wanted to enjoy my new found freedom I had to press on." _**

.

It was a long climb up and Kain was sweating hard by the end of it. Eventually however he pulled himself up and into the tunnel through which the tram would have once travelled. The wide passage led on for some distance, curving to the right.

With not other recourse Kain followed it, stopping at another precipice.

There he stopped, simply to stare his fill.

.

**_"Churning gears of an alien clockwork greeted me as I entered, spinning slowly to turn the great machine of arcane construction." _**

.

"What manner of place is this?" Kain asked himself in a mixture of axe and revolution.

In vast rows all the way up to the high ceiling were stone moulds, their indentations the size and shape of a man. Between them ran metal gulley's that had adjoining nozzles poised over each and every one.

Behind the rows of moulds were perhaps a dozen large cylindrical containers, each one as large as a manor house. They moved ponderously from left to right, pausing at intervals, thick steam rising from their open tops. With each pause a small round porthole was opened in their base.

Out from the doorway poured a yellowish liquid that Kain recognised as the same stinking ichors that filled the homunculi. It flowed down the metal gullies, trailing thick white smoke as it ran. It fed into the nozzles and began to fill the man shaped moulds. Once one layer was done the stone pressed down with a loud kiss, more steam issuing forth in a cloud.

Kain walked down a series of twisting stone steps to the floor of the factory, for what was what he guessed it had to be, and walked amongst this strange equipment as the process of pouring and filling moulds was repeated over and over.

.

**_ "As I watched I came to realise what this place was. This was a forge, a production facility built to create the foul homunculi. Magic and science were combined in this machine to bind them together; a factory to build the soldiers of heaven."_**

.

This facility seemed able to mass produce homunculi at a phenomenal rate and there was no guarantee there were not more such places elsewhere in Fanum-Divus. With such industry at his command Raziel-Divus could have quite literally millions of the terracotta dolls to summon at a moment's notice.

"My my my, you got this far already?" A smooth and cultured voice asked from behind him.

Kain spun, talons arched apart and ready for an ambush. He saw nobody and the voice had stopped before the echo could pinpoint the speaker.

"You certainly live up to your reputation." The voice continued and Kain looked around again trying to find his observer. "I hadn't intended for you to escape the slave pens until much later. Othiel let you have too much freedom."

Kain looked up to see a shape perched on the highest level of moulders directly above him, a vaguely humanoid shape at this distance. "No matter though."

"If you have something to say to me don't liner in the shadows." Kain called up with a scowl. "Come forward and speak."

The lingering stranger chuckled in amusement.

"Direct and to the point." It observed dryly. "Very well."

The shadow vaulted over the side and dropped down towards him, large raven black wings wafting out to slow its fall. Kain started at the sight of them and several steps backwards.

The being that landed before him was undeniably an ancient vampire like Janos and Raziel-Divus. He was not quite as tall as Kain and far leaner, wearing an elaborate white robe with an open chest. Silver bracers were strapped to his wrists.

What really grabbed Kain's attention was the tattoo covering the right hand side of his face, an elaborating decoration that spread out from around the eye.

The stranger paused to tidy his hair and smiled the kind of smile Kain always had contempt for, the slick smile of someone who wants to hide something from you. It had been Moebius' natural expression.

"My name is Asmoedous-Divus." He said by way of introduction with a dramatic flare of one hand.

Kain's scowl deepened.

"Othiel has mentioned you." He said grimly. Asmoedous looked at him and then sighed.

"The child must really learn to control her loose tongue." He mused in resignation and then shrugged. "Well then that means we don't have to waste time on needless introductions and can get straight down to business."

So this was the one Ophiel served, the one who had ordered him saved from the ether and restored to health. Kain had not known what to expect of his latest benefactor but this fawning pretty boy was definitely not it.

"Politics of your realm aside, your god has ordered my destruction." The vampire said. "Your king tried to ensure that himself."

Asmoedous snorted derisively.

"Raziel-Divus is a coward." He replied with a disgust that was more then sincere. "A fawning religious sycophant doing everything he can to bend fate until it breaks." Asmoedous flicked some hair out of his hands negligently with a talon.

"His efforts are futile and he knows it but he tries all the same, driven by a fear and anxiety that floods his entire being."

A sneer parted his lips.

"He disgusts me."

Kain regarded him for a long silent moment. He didn't really trust anyone in this game. He had not even been entirely truthful with Raziel on some issues and he would be an utter fool to take anything this Divus said at face value.

"You saved me merely to spite him?" The vampire asked. "You risk your god's wrath for something so petty?"

Asmoedous spreads his wings wide and then resettled them against his back in response, fluttering them as they settled. Kain recognised the gesture as one of agitation. Ajatar had done something very similar whenever she was vexed. That reminded him. He had to learn the fate of Serioli when he had the opportunity.

"Of course not." He replied. "I have plans for how to put you to use." The ancient then spread his hands with a faint smile.

"And 'god's wrath' as you put it, is as subject to politics as the rest of us. He is…" Asmoedous paused, considering. "...busy… and so his wrath falls only on those he is irritated enough to notice."

"He is your god and yet you say he is not omniscient?" Kain asked. Ophiel had not made a large issue about her devotion to the false god but she had pledged herself to him when asked. Asmoedous appeared to be of higher rank then her and was dismissing the deity with casual disinterest.

"If he were every homunculus in Fanum-Divus would be converging on you this very second." Asmoedous said still with that amused smile. "He has many eyes and ears but if one avoids them, his notice is not drawn."

Kain wondered how much of that was true. He had discarded the idea of the false god having true divine powers but obviously its sight extended far.

If the cephalopod's sight was truly limited why was a Divus telling him so?

"I find it odd you are a Divus and you belittle the power of your god." He said out load.

Asmoedous blew air in a snort and rolled his eyes.

"I serve him and pay respect to him not because I am under any illusion to his true nature, but rather because doing so gives me power."

He raised his talons and began ticking off a list.

"I am immortal and I sit in the high councils of heaven itself. That is something I would bend my knee to anyone for." He grinned at Kain. "Surely you can respect a man's ambition?"

"Not when it's entirely self serving." The vampire retorted. Asmoedous looked at him down the barrel of his nose, half closing his eyes.

"Your statement reeks of hypocrisy, Kain." He said. Kain managed a frown with enough irritation to defend his point.

"My ambition to create a Vampiric empire was not just for myself but for all my kind." He stated. "If I benefited so did they."

Asmoedous laughed out load, rolling his head back. It was almost a hysterical cackle.

"Don't deceive yourself." He said with mirth, pointing a talon at the vampire almost accusingly. "You weren't standing up for the oppressed vampires. You weren't their savour coming to rescue them. Altruism wasn't that prompted you."

The grin on his face turned vicious.

"It was greed, pure and simple." He said. "Just like me."

.

**_"I wanted to deny the accusation. I had acted for the good of all vampires hadn't I? In creating my empire I had delivered them from oppression and persecution, set them forever free from the threat of extinction."_**

.

He opened his mouth to do just that. Nothing came out.

.

**_"The sophistry of such a rationalisation was so palpable it stuck in my mind before it even made it to my tongue. Of course it was not true."_**

**.**

He had always regretted the self serving ambition which had driven him to conquer Nosgoth once he had learned of his true potential but he had justified it in his own mind under the pretence of necessity. But Asmoedous was perfectly correct. That was nothing more then an illusion constructed for his own benefit.

.

**_"I had desired dominion, control and respect. Any benefit that my people had gained at my success had been entirely coincidental."_**

.

Asmoedous' smile widened, showing off his fangs.

"There, now that we understand one another…" He began and started forward. He offered Kain his hand. "…there is something I'd like to show you."


	11. 10 Raziel Divine Ship

Before too long, several of Ewoden's pack managed to catch back up to him; galloping in their lupine forms the whole way. They were breathing hard and exhausted, panting to control their body temperature. Once they had recovered enough to observe who was waiting for them, they were taken aback and one of them even snarled.

Ewoden stepped in quickly with a few sharp words. As the leader of their pack he was the alpha wolf and so his word was law. The others looked between him and Raziel but said nothing in response nor did they offer up any more protests.

"We take him to see the boat." Ewoden ordered and marched past without waiting for them to agree or argue.

The wolves obeyed and fell in beside them as they began heir journey, their eyes on Raziel and not leaving him for a second as they moved.

It was not a long journey. They rose up two floors passing through more chambers full of the animal cages before coming out onto a large circular stone platform that opened up to behold the outside of the city.

There again were those two abysses, one black one white that outlines each other with the impossible city in-between.

That was not what got Raziel's immediate attention. Attached to several stone jetties a little above them and some distance off was…

"I do not understand…" The blue wraith admitted, staring at the thing. It was long, very long in fact with a curved roof like underside. He could not see the entire thing as he was looking up at it from underneath but its size seemed out it as being half the width of the city itself. Staring up at it Raziel felt chilled for some reason, as if he were having a premonition of doom.

The werewolves all looked up at it and then changed back to their human forms. Two had red hair like Ewoden but the third had very blonde hair and his eyes were a matching gold. He seemed to be far younger then the others, his appearance being no older then twenty.

The pack leader looked back and then turned again to regard the strange thing before them.

"Ambraxas calls it the Ark." He said. "It has been in construction since long before we were brought here."

And then Raziel understood what he was looking at. It was a ship, a ship larger then any vessel he had ever seen before.

.

**_"The mighty vessel was like no ship I had ever seen, a leviathan that stretched for what could possibly be miles. The ship was elegantly crafted despite being so large, its bow sweeping back like the curve of a swans wing. The vessel was impossible, alien and heavenly beautiful."_**

.

If he were to compare it to a familiar object of relative size then it would say it was at least as large as the Vampire Citadel that Janos had shown him; certainly longer then Ishtar's Ziggurat was tall.

"A ship that flies." The blue wraith breathed. Even Hylden technology had not attempted something of such magnitude.

"A safeguard for life they say." Ewoden said, holding his arms. The chains hanging from his manacles clinked. "Soon they'll start moving the containers from the holding pens into the ship."

Raziel turned his head to look at him.

"Why? What purpose does this all serve?" He asked. Ewoden also turned his head to stare.

"Haven't you guessed?" He asked, actually sounding surprised. When Raziel did not immediately reply the Emissary gestured back the way they had come, indicating the large chambers that housed those rows of containers.

"The animals they gathered are to ensure that when their plan comes to fruition, Nosgoth can be repopulated from these specimens." He managed a distasteful frown at his own words. "I suppose that's why Ambraxas kept us."

So far Ewoden had said nothing more about this supposed doomsday scenario. Did it involve this ludicrously large vessel in some way?

"You said drowned." The blue wraith reminded him. Ewoden nodded once, sharply.

"That's the word they use most often when talking about the Promised Day." He said. "Sometimes they say 'cleansing' or 'baptism'. It all amounts to the same thing."

The emissary curved his hand and turned it about as if running it over an imaginary globe, a gesture Raziel took to mean that what the masters of this city planned would affect the entire world. "A destruction of all life."

That might be Ewoden's interpretation of the plans being put into motion but Raziel was not so sure, or at least felt there was more to it then that.

The Divus were the servants of the Elder and as such any grand scheme would come from him. Raziel knew the mind of his former master well and the apocalypse Ewoden seemed to fear did not fit the motives of the enemy.

Why would the Elder, who fed of the life of Nosgoth, want to destroy it all? Life provided him with sustenance.

"…life." Raziel repeated softly and slowly, turning to look back down the corridor they had come. Sustenance; that was the apt word here. The Elder's interest in sustaining life only extended as far as his appetite.

"Something the matter?" Ewoden asked after the blue wraith remained silent for perhaps a minute.

"No…" Raziel said, a dawning realization coming into his mind. All the werewolves looked at him. "No they don't want to repopulate Nosgoth once it's destroyed."

Ewoden raised thick red eyebrow at him puzzlement.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

The scope of this plan was audacious and quite insane. Raziel marvelled at it in that any being, be him a mortal or a god, could conceive of it at all.

"This… ark." He began, gesturing up towards the ship. "It's no simple ferry meant to hold what they want until the chaos subsides. It's a vessel meant for a long distance travel, I can see that from here."

The lycanthropes still looked confused.

"These examples of life are to go on a journey." Raziel told them all intensely. "Why else would you need a vessel? They're provisions. Supplies!"

Ewoden blinked, looked up at the Ark and then back to Raziel all in one moment.

"Supplies?" He repeated incredulously. "You mean they plan to eat them?" His tone was half mocking.

"Your satire might be closer to the truth then you realise." The blue wraith told him ominously.

.

**_"The hand of my former master in the purpose of this vessel was unmistakable and insidious. He fed off life itself and so what else would a ship custom made for him contain?"_**

.

The Keeper, that strange fish like entity he had met only once before, had claimed that the Elder was preparing for his 'Endgame'. Could this be it? To destroy Nosgoth and then leave with supplies enough to sustain him to some other place?

Only he did not see how this was to be accomplished. Where else could the Elder go and how could he possibly hope to destroy all life on an entire world?

Drown it?

Too commonplace and such an action would not destroy all life either, just that which dwelt on the land; a disaster to be sure but not a clearing of the slate by any stretch of the cosmic imagination.

He could stand here and try to puzzle out the meanings for all eternity but there were no answers to be had at present. If such a disaster were coming then it made his own mission vitally imperative.

Kain had to be found and returned to Nosgoth where some defence, plan or counter attack might be put into play. Kain was good at that sort of thing.

Raziel looked up at the Ark again, this time not looking at the ship itself but rather at where it was 'docked' to the side of the city.

It seemed very much like that section had been specifically built to hold the ship while it was being built for the vessel fit there perfectly, almost snugly. It was an area with a great many hanging turrets leading off the side of it, defensive structures no doubt.

.

**_"The vessel could very well be where Kain might be being held. It was isolated and well defended. If anywhere might be secure to hold him it would be there. Admittedly I was grasping at straws but my hunch was all I had to work with."_**

.

What he was about to do would be a gamble to be certain but he had to take some gambles if he were going to find Kain. Wandering around aimlessly hoping to bump into him was going to get him absolutely nowhere.

"I wish to get onboard." He told the lycanthropes. They all just stared at him, each wearing an expression that said loud and clear 'are you mad?'

"Why?" Ewoden asked him flatly. Raziel did not meet his gaze.

"That is my own affair." He replied. The emissary of the lycanthropes was silent a long time but his eyes spoke volumes of his thoughts. He was deep in thought about something quite personal and seemed hesitant, as if he were looking at an opportunity and not sure whether or not he should take it.

"No one gets onto that ship unless they have business being there." He said, still looking thoughtful and troubled. "It is the most highly guarded structure of Fanum-Divus."

Raziel didn't doubt that for an instant. If the ship was anywhere near as important as Ewoden seemed to think it to be then the Elder would have his servants guard it with their very souls.

"No place is impregnable, not even the constructions of heaven." He said quite firmly. A sacrilegious statement and one meant to fire up his own spirit, to make himself ready to undertake this undoubtedly near impossible task.

"This is reckless." Ariel said, her voice echoing in the vaults of his mind. She sounded profoundly disapproving of his proposed action.

"If you have an alternative I would be more then willing to hear you out." Raziel told her back silently.

"If Kain isn't there you'll have placed yourself in great danger." She said.

"But do you have an alternative?"

"No but…"

"Then we have little choice." The argument seemed quite capable of continuing for some time but Ewoden interrupted the silent bickering.

"I shall be coming with you." That declaration startled everyone, Raziel and the werewolves both. They all turned to look at him and he scowled back, resolute.

"I will not require a guide." Raziel told him quickly.

"That is not my reason." Ewoden said. He pointed towards the Ark with his right hand. "That ship is where Ambraxas resides. He hasn't left his chambers onboard for what I suspect is a century."

They all turned to regard the vessel anew.

"The coward fears we might catch him alone in a corridor some day." One of the werewolves said with a cruel chuckle, the one with long black hair down his back. He had the same odd accent that Ewoden had.

"Aye, it would be a good day for the pack." The one to the left said; his hair a dirty brown.

"And a day that will never come if we simply wait for him to come out." Ewoden reminded them without looking back; his eyes fixed on the ship. Raziel saw that the indecision was gone. Whatever his dilemma had been he can come to a conclusion.

The emissary stared his fill at the ship, took a deep preparatory breath and then turned.

"I have sworn three oaths to those who follow our ways." He said and he was speaking not to Raziel but to his own kind. "By accompanying this visitor into the Ark I will attempt to fulfil the first."

Raziel did not know what he was talking about but his words seemed to have a profound effective on the werewolves in their human form. New respect shone in their eyes for their pack leader, they all seemed to stiffen in their posture.

"Can we really trust this blue devil?" The one with the golden hair and eyes asked, giving the blue wraith a sidelong glance. "He killed some of our own, let's not forget."

"Quiet now." Ewoden told the youngster quite firmly, silencing him with a very penetrating glare. "We were stalking him. The prey fighting back is fair game and them of ours that died perished by the rules of the hunt. There's been no crime."

While the rules of Lycanthrope culture were mildly fascinating Raziel had his mind on other things.

"Revenge?" He asked Ewoden, trying not to sound disappointed for such a menial and petty motivation. He knew first hand it's pursuit was hollow.

"Can you blame us?" The Lycanthrope emissary asked pointedly. Raziel took in a breath as if about to speak but then simply let it out with a long sigh.

"No."

Even if did know better now how could he fault someone else for walking his own path?


	12. 11 Kain Temporal Lens

It was not a translocation spell. That Kain could tell for certain. It did not feel the same at all. It was a sort of shift and the physical sensation was very different. It felt as if the world had moved to accommodate them rather then their own bodies crossing the distance.

Then they were at their destination, a large chamber perfectly round like a dome with 6 doors leading of from it evenly spaced around the outside.

There were homunculi all around them, dozens of them all armed with swords; a small army. Together the dolls turned to regard the intruders, drawing with blades with a uniform hiss.

Asmoedous raised his left hand and then swung it sharply down.

"Sleep!" He commanded. The homunculi swayed as if they were wheat caught in a breeze and then stiffened.

As one the puppets turned and walked away, marching until they came to the chamber's outside wall. There they stood, immobile and waiting. They were as silent and still as statues.

"Much better." Asmoedous said with satisfaction, dusting off his hands and starting forward.

Kain stared off after the terracotta puppets, wondering absently if a verbal command from anyone to 'sleep' would have the same effect.

The chamber was different from the rest of Fanum-Divus. While the city had been mostly built from a red to gold stone, this chamber was covered in shiny, almost metallic tiles.

They spread out in spiral from the floor, the middle in the very centre of the room. When they reached the outside they continued up the wall and formed another spiral on the domed ceiling; going in the opposite direction.

Across the tiles on the walls were drawings, a series of dark rune like markings. Kain did not recognise the language if it was one and couldn't understand what they meant. Intermixed with the runes were pictograms. The images were crisp and stood out perfectly with no sign of fading.

One picture showed an icon of a sun in the centre of which was a wide staring eye. Encircling the sun itself was a thick ring of dozens of demonic looking skulls with their mouths agape.

Another image showed a man, or a man like being, standing in the centre of another ring of those same evil looking skulls with his arms and legs outstretched.

"What is this place?" Kain asked, turning to look at Asmoedous, who at that moment was walking in a slow circuit around the room looking down at the floor.

"You stand in the very centre of Fanum-Divus." He said without looking up at him, gaze still locked on the floor. "All of it, the entire city is build out and around from this point."

Kain narrowed his eyes and looked around afresh. What was so special abut this room that it had to be the centre of the city? It was completely empty. Did the ruling elite, class or whatever was the top council here use this as a meeting room? Seeing his confusion Asmoedous chuckled and gestured for Kain to step back away from the centre of the chamber.

Kain's frown deepened but he did as instructed, backing off towards the edge of the room; very conscious of the silent staring homunculi lining the walls.

Asmoedous faced the centre of the chamber and raised both hands high.

"Behold." He said and then spread his hands apart.

There was a loud shunting sound from below, following by three 'clunks' in succession. Then, slowly at first, the tiles that formed the spiral on the floor began to peel back. They slide up and over each other, folding back along the spiral and opening up.

Kain watched with widening eyes as the floor slid away; moving aside with a cacophony of metallic clatters. About half the floor had folded away by the time it stopped, the tiles reconfiguring themselves to form a ring and revealing what had lain concealed underneath.

It was the singular most beautiful piece of work Kain had ever seen. A ring of metal, painstakingly engraved and constructed out of thousands of small parts each one no bigger then his thumb. It hovered there, attached to the sides of the hole by arms made with the same style of jigsaw like pieces all fitted together.

In the centre, framed by the metal, was a lens that shone like the brightest mother of pearl from any oyster. It shone bright even in the dim light of the chamber, its surface giving a concave appearance to the reflection of everything around it.

Slowly the entire lens rose up out of the floor and hovered there, the arms holding it up.

Kain stared at it, hardly even noticing Asmoedous walk up beside him. Staring into the lens Kain felt that somehow, his very essence was being stretched and compressed; not over any distance but between past and future. As if part of him were being pulled forward in time and another pulled back.

"This is the Tempus Crux, the lens through which time can be bent." The Divus said, following his gaze up to it with a pleasant smile. "Its existence here, poised between the two absolutes of everything and nothing, is what makes time travel possible."

Had he said anything else Kain probably would have ignored him. But those words were enough for the vampire to pull his attention away, turning his head slowly to look at Asmoedous in stunned amazement.

"Do you mean to say…" He began; his voice low and quiet. "…that without this lens none of the time streaming devices would work?"

Asmoedous nodded once.

"Precisely." He confirmed with a tinge of pride. "Not even the Chronoplast itself."

The revelation struck Kain dumb. He stood there, almost paralysed by this information.

Had Moebius known of this? Of course, he must have. As the Guardian of the Pillar of time, it would have been his business to know of the lens. Kain had always assumed it had merely been Moebius' time magic or technology that made the journeys either back or forward in time possible.

No wonder Moebius had been so smug, right up until the end, if he had this knowledge secret.

Kain shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. The implications of all this left him staggered.

"Then it was your kind that created the lens and made it possible." He began, pondering his thoughts out load. Had they made the Chronoplast as well? The other time streaming devices? Had Moebius merely been using them with instruction from the Divus?

Asmoedous hooted and then laughed.

"While I'm sure I feel flattered for the whole of Fanum-Divus for your assumption, no we did not create it." He said.

Kain looked at him sharply.

"We built the city that expands around the Tempus Crux true enough, but the lens was here long before we came."

Kain's expression was incredulous.

"You mean it was just… floating here?" He asked. Asmoedous raised a hand and wobbled it up and down

"Mostly." He said. "None of us know who made the lens. I've studied it for centuries myself trying to understand its mysteries." He pointed with a talon towards the lens, indicating around it to its delicate looking metal frame. "All I can tell for sure that some elements of it seem to be of Hylden construction."

The vampire gave the frame another look. He recognised Hylden architecture when he saw it but this was of a whole other level to what he expected from that race. Whomever had made this thing, no matter his race, he was a inspired genius the likes of which Nosgoth might never see before or since.

"I've questioned many but no Hylden I have ever spoken to can tell me more, not even Ambraxas-Divus." Asmoedous said with a regretful sigh.

The initial shock and awe fading, Kain contemplated what he was being told and shown.

"Why are you showing me this?" He asked harshly. Asmoedous grinned at him.

"So you understand what's being used against you." He replied and approached the Crux, raising a hand as if to beckon to it. "Watch. Let me show you what can be done with this device."

As he approached the lens began to glow, the illumination soft at first but growing steadily in intensity. It was a very subtle, soft light that cat absolutely no shadow.

The lens itself seemed somehow to vibrate without actually moving, an audible and low pitched hum resonating through the air.

With a series of clicks and whirs, the hundreds of small parts that made up the lens frame disconnected and rejoined formed patterns that vanished as soon as they came but holding the lens itself steady all the while.

.

**_"The lens responded to his command, acting very much like one of the vision chambers that ringed the Chronoplast that allowed for visions from other epochs."_**

**_._**

When it began, the image was not shown in the lens itself but projected. Some light Kain could not see shone through the lens and it manifested there before them an image. Kain recoiled slightly, alarmed by what he was seeing.

It was him, struggling for his life against the powers and skill of Raziel-Divus; the two of the locked in moral combat in the middle of the Chronoplast device.

"Raziel-Divus used this very lens to know where and when to strike at you." Asmoedous explained, indicating the image that played out before them. It was like reliving that battle over again, only watching from the outside.

"He had had that ambush planned well in advance."

Kain kept on watching the fight, his face creasing into an expression of outraged consternation when it came to the part when Divus bested him, stole the Reaver and cast him through the unstable porthole into the ether.

It had taken Kain a long time to learn how to control the visions that the Chronoplast showed him so that they revealed what he wanted them to rather then selecting random events in past or future. Even then it was an imprecise science as there were thousands of ways to interpret the visions.

This lens was far more accurate.

"It has its limitations as you have to know precisely 'when' you want to see and location is directed not by you but by the target you wish to survey, but it is most useful if used properly." Asmoedous was explaining, inadvertently showing Kain that he had had the same sort of problem in this reading of the time stream.

The ancient paused then, regarding Kain and seeing that the vampires thoughts were clearly elsewhere. Then he grinned.

"In fact, why don't I show you something a little more startling?" He asked. Kain looked at him but Asmoedous said nothing else. He raised his hands again and once more the lens responded; the configuration of its frame changing and the projected image with it.

.

**_ "The vision cleared and…"_**

.

"Impossible!" Kain blurted out, his voice echoing around the chamber. Asmoedous looked at the image before them with only a mediocre kind of surprise.

"Oh my my, he's actually here!" He said, looking puzzled and a little worried. "That was unexpected indeed."

.

**_"Raziel. MY Raziel, alive and well and here in this very city? How could this be? I had watched him as his essence had finally been devoured by the Soul Reaver."_**

.

The blue wraith, the Raziel he was more familiar with. The Raziel he preferred. The image showed him talking with a human, the architecture around the two of them clearly matching Fanum-Divus. He was here? This made no sense at all.

"What manner of trickery is this?" The vampire demanded, fangs bared as he turned to confront Asmoedous.

"No trickery, Kain I assure you." Asmoedous replied but he was flustered, brows meeting in a front of consternation. Whatever this vision portended it did not sit well with him.

"King Raziel-Divus has been going slowly mad after he learned that freeing his future essence from inside you only allowed him to continue existing on as the wraith."

Kain struggled with thoughts that swirled around inside his head, refusing to stay still long enough for him to process them.

.

**_"And then I remembered. Divus was reaching down, pulling out my soul. No… it wasn't my soul he was pulling out. It was Raziel's, entwined around my own. He had been inside me the whole time and having been freed he was now restored, a fresh chance to spite fate."_**

.

Could he believe what was seeing here? He wanted to believe it, to have Raziel returned to him would be a boon like no other.

"Well this certainly calls for a change of plan." Asmoedous said.

Indeed it did. If Raziel was free of the Reaver's curse, the potential for gain against the False God was there once more.

He felt guilty at considering how best to use Raziel rather then simply being glad of his greatest ally's revival, but Raziel would understand his sentiments he was sure.

But did he have the right to ask more of Raziel? His first born son had spent eons trapped inside the Reaver by now. Wasn't that service enough? And who was he to ask more of him? The one who tore off his wings and cast him into the abyss, setting a prophecy into motion that he had never known of?

"Once Raziel-Divus learns his future self is here I can imagine all hell breaking loose." Asmoedous muttered in an exasperated tone. "So be it then."

He turned and pointed, seemingly in Kain's direction but then the vampire heard a low groaning of stone from behind him. Turning, he saw that the door to the chamber directly behind him was opening.

"We will have to part ways here Kain." Asmoedous said. "I had hoped for more time so we might have a little chat and come to an arrangement."

With his other hand he gestured down and behind him the lens of the Tempus Crux began to descend back into the floor. It's gleaming brilliance died away and the projected image of the wraith with it.

"As it is, I will have to divert our king's attention long enough for you and your blue friend to make your escape."

"Escape?" Kain repeated incredulously and with profound disbelief. "Why are you doing this? How does aiding us benefit you?"

"Oh I think you'll figure it out in time, old boy." Asmoedous stated with a confidence Kain did not feel. "Time that right this moment you don't have." He cast a glance at the Tempus Crux as it disappeared into the hole in the floor and the tiles began to fold back over it in their spiral pattern.

"By the look of him just now, I would say your ghoulish friend is about to venture onto the Ark. If I were you I would get to him before he goes much further. It's been a pleasure meeting you Kain. We really must make time for a decent chat one of these days."

He grinned warmly.

"Ta-Ta." With that he vanished, one moment there and the next he was gone.

.

**_"This I could believe the vision this lens had shown me was true, then it was the greatest of news and the most welcome. My son, my ally, restored to me."_**

.

Kain looked from the open door to the tiles still folding back to cover the Tempus Crux.

.

**_"I disliked leaving this lens here, in the heart of my enemy's power. But Asmoedous was right. I have to get to Raziel before the city was roused against us."_**

.

He bolted for the door.

.

**_"But as soon as we escaped this place, I resolved to be cautious. Asmoedous had designs for me that I doubted would be to my liking once they came to fruition." _**


	13. 12 Raziel    Chimera

Ewoden led the way, his knowledge of the corridors and layout of Fanum-Divus proving invaluable. As expected, a literal army of the terracotta homunculi were stationed in and around the Ark itself. Where it connected to the city, the ship had a dock with a massive square door that opened from the hull. This was shut tight and guarded well.

The ship had no deck upon which to stand. The vessel was curbed cylinder, pointed at both ends with small guiding wings along its sides. As he drew closer to it Raziel could make out the large engraving across the ship's entire hull. The delicate impressions of feathers were done in painstaking detail; a pair of angelic swings sweeping from the front of the ship towards the back. It seemed to be like an angelic arrow awaiting the bow to make it fly.

"You never explained why you need to get onto their ship." Ewoden said as they observed the large door, the seeming only way of getting onboard from a side corridor. The homunculi had not noticed them yet, remaining deceptively statue still.

"I am looking for something." The blue wraith replied, eyes busy studying the doorway. There had to be an alternative method of entry rather then this front door. For the vessel only to have one door seemed very inefficient. Surely they would not load everything the ship was through the same way? But Ewoden had been quite adamant that this was the only entrance. That he knew of anyway.

"What?" The emissary asked, looking back over his shoulder. Raziel shook his head with a frown.

"You would not understand if I told you." He said, still observing. As he watched, two more homunculi came out of a side tunnel entrance near the large door and came up to another two directly in front of it. They said nothing to each other but the two parties exchanged places, the new arrivals taking the guarding posts while the other two marched back in through the tunnel door.

"Where does that passage go?" He asked, gesturing with a nod of his head towards the smaller doorway.

"The corridor system." Ewoden told him. "There are the large main corridors like this one but inside the walls are dry runs, smaller tighter corridors where you can move around quicker. The entire city is honey combed with them." The emissary let loose a low evil chuckle. "It makes the hunt very interesting."

Raziel ignored the gallows humour, his mind racing for a possible solution to their problem.

"Is there anywhere where the Ark is still under construction?" He asked. Ewoden's eyes narrowed in thought.

"Yes." He admitted and then shook his head, perhaps guessing Raziel's train of thought. "But we'll not get through there, too many slaves at work. Someone will be bound to see us."

"I can hide myself." Raziel stated. "And you can pass for human amongst them."

Ewoden gave him a long steady look.

"Not amongst the slave race of Fanum-Divus I can't."

"Why not?"

"They all have gold hair and eyes, like that young lad you saw earlier." Ewoden explained. "We take our cubs from amongst the slave race yes but I am not of their kind. I would he spotted in an instant."

Thankfully, Ariel's giggle at the use of the word 'cubs' sounded only in Raziel's mind so Ewoden did not hear her. Raziel supposed he was using the word the same way a vampire would refer to a fledgling.

"We will have to risk it." He decided. "Can we get to the construction site through those dry runs?"

Ewoden nodded sharply. He did not take them far. It was a short, twisting route through the gaps in the walls. They rose up several hundred feet before they reached the level they needed to be at.

Ewoden led them around a section he said was a station for homunculi before they saw the ship again.

While the vessel had looked complete from below; its top half was still undergoing work. Thin scaffolding traced over the vessel like a delicate spiders web, a cocoon of supports upon which sprawled a host of humanity; slaves all, working to complete the work started eons ago.

As Ewoden had said, they were all golden haired. From above it had the queer appearance of a nest of yellow spiders enveloping a butterfly's chrysalis.

What Raziel was really looking for however was way inside and after a moment, he saw it. One of the finishing touches to the vessel was the tips of the wings where they curved up to meet at the back. These had not yet been entirely completed, the inside metal scaffolding still visible.

Raziel pointed to it and following his gaze, Ewoden's eyes brightened at once.

"Can you get to that?" The blue wraith asked. The emissary considered. He no doubt noticed, as Raziel had, the vast amount of homunculi amongst the slaves. There was little to no chance of getting through that multitude unnoticed.

But the opportunity was too good to pass up.

"Speed will be more valuable then stealth." He said eventually, pointing down at where the scaffolding as attached to the city itself. "We can move unseen up till there. After that it's not all that great a distance. If we opt for speed…"

He trailed off and the two of them looked each other gravely.

"Even once inside they'll pursue us." Ewoden said.

"Is there any viable alternative?" Raziel asked.

Another pause.

"Aye, so be it then."

And so it was. The two of them moved slowly and unobserved up until they reached the scaffolding, the ship looming before lime with the hundreds of slaves sweating over their labour. It would be no frontal assault or fight to the finish. Neither of them could waste time on meaningless skirmishing.

Then they burst forward, running as hard as they could over the thin scaffolding they ignored every homunculus and startled slave they past.

One terracotta puppet tried to block Raziel's way with a shield but the blue wraith slide through its legs, dragging his talons sharply across its ankles. There was a loud tearing sound and the puppet toppled forward, its legs breaking away with its liquid insides pouring out.

He didn't waste time seeing if he had finished it off, Raziel just kept running.

To his left, Ewoden was shoving slaves out of his way as he ran. Casting him a sidelong glance Raziel could see the emissary slowly changing.

His body began to grow, twisting up with muscles expanding and bulking. His arms and legs grew long and out the back of his tattered kilt ran a long bushy red tail. His face pushed out; elongating into a feral snout full of teeth. Now fully in werewolf form he was clearly the largest of their pack; galloping on all fours knocking the slaves down and covering more ground with ease.

They were both about two thirds of the way across the scaffolding when the alarm began, if an alarm is what it was. The sound was a high pitched wailing sound coming from the city behind them.

Raziel quickened his pace, racing up to the side of the ship itself where the scaffolding turned up vertically along its side. Then he began to climb, scaling the support structure towards the still open top.

Ewoden was right behind him but scaling faster, his long arms able to grab to higher ledges to pull himself up.

Aware of the intrusion by now, the homunculi were all converging on them; with more coming out from the city in support. But they acted too slow and by the time they had reached the ship to try and stop them, Raziel and Ewoden had already reached the top of the vessel.

Ewoden reverted back into human form, shrinking in upon himself with an audible gurgling sound of relaxing muscle and moving liquids.

He went first, slipping down into the ship, climbing down the interior walls. Raziel followed after him, not climbing but dropping down; using his tattered wings to slow his decent.

The interior of the ark, or at least the part in which he found himself, was far less impressive then its angelic outer façade. Perhaps this was due to the construction equipment stacked all around, hiding the developing ship from view. The wailing alarm was muffled inside but still a constant reminder of their peril.

Ewoden dropped down with a thud beside him, glancing around quickly.

"We should move quickly and find whatever it is you are looking for before the entire vessel is swarming." The emissary said, looking off down the interior scaffolding leading further into the ship.

In full agreement on this Raziel followed him quickly.

The corridors of the ship were perfectly round. There were no walls, floor or ceiling; just a cylinder with round doors branching off into other round corridors. They were more like pipes then actual walkways.

As they proceeded, Raziel began to feel more and more disturbed. He could not put this feeling into words but he felt a resonance from deep within the vessel, travelling along the floor upon which he stood to enter his body.

It was almost like the beating of a heart, although far more sluggish. Its touch felt him feeling soiled, as if he were drawing closer to some putrid and unwholesome.

Deep within his mind Ariel shivered in the same revolution, perhaps more as her spirit did not have a body to shelter her from the sickening effects. He saw he form beside him, projected only for his eyes. Her face was gradually reverting back to the skeletal corruption as they progressed.

Ewoden paused and opened a side door in the left hand side of the corridor, dropping down a short distance to a raised platform. Raziel followed him, the revolting sensation lessening a little in the room beyond. But when he saw what lay in this room, he stopped and stared in appalled horror.

.

**_ "The Ark housed more containers, but the animals shuttered within where twisted horrors and abominations of nature. This was no ship of the divine but rather a vessel of sickness."_**

.

The cages inside this room were smaller, cramped and compact; some barely large enough for the pitiful creatures shoved in them.

And the creatures themselves; twisted blends of animals that could only be artificial blends. Snakes with bat wings they couldn't lift, reptiles with dozens of legs all stuck out in absurd directions. One beast seemed almost human where it not for a massive bulls head with curving horns that stared at them mindlessly from behind the bars of its cage, droll running from the corners of its leathery lips.

The air was filled with a sticking miasma of diseased faeces.

"What are these wretches?" Raziel asked in stunned dismay, looking around at the poor creatures.

Ewoden's expression was fixed, grim with its lips pursed.

"Chimeras, creatures blended together by Ambraxas to create new forms." He said with a rigidly control neutral tone. "This is how the Lycanthropes were born."

Raziel pondered not only what dark transmutation process could make such horrors and at what mind would conceive of such madness?

They descended to the floor and moved amongst the cages. Raziel did his best not to look at them but there was one he could not avoid, for a puddle of thick sludge was leaking out the side of it.

Now he understood Ewoden's pain and anger, and that of the other werewolves, all too well.

They had gone only a short distance, stepping out into an area where several larger cages made a circle; when Ewoden stopped dead in his tracks and glanced up sharply. Raziel followed his gaze towards a platform projecting out from the nearby wall. A doorway opened out onto that balcony and standing in it was a figure.

Shadow obscured Raziel's view of whoever it was.

"Ah yes, Lycan prototype number seven." A cultured voice said, with an accent so like the Seer's that Raziel blinked. "Oh what was your name?" The figure clicked its fingers several times to prod its memory. "Ewoden, that's right."

Ewoden's eyes began to slowly widen and his lips pulled back over his teeth, displaying enlarged canine teeth.

"Cowardly bastard, Ambraxas!" He hissed, spreading his arms; fur growing over them up to the elbows and his nails turning into claws. "Now I'm finally going to make you pay for what you've done!"

The figure sighed theatrically.

"Oh this tired old vendetta again?" It asked, stepping forward. "How many times must I send you and your mongrels off running with your tails between your legs before you learn your place?"

Raziel shot Ewoden a glare.

"You never said you'd tried for him before." The blue wraith accused. Ewoden's gaze did not waver from his enemy.

"I might have put you off going if I had." He remarked, quite truthfully.

The figure above stepped into the light and Raziel stared up in baffled astonishment.

"He's Hylden…" He breathed, staring at the being that could only be Ambraxas-Divus.

He had the same crest of their kind, the same pale skin and skeletal like frame; but he was more like the Seer in that he had thick brown hair tied back in a ponytail behind his back, sprouting from behind his crest.

His face was completely unblemished by the signs of corruption the demon dimension had left on the mass majority of his kind and his eyes were blue, not emerald green and glowing.

So this was how the Hylden race looked like before their banishment; beautiful in their own right.

But what was a Hylden, a race who worshiped the Keeper, doing in the upper echelons of the Wheel of Fate?

Ambraxas wore spectacles, fashioned to be able to fit onto a head that had no visible ears and their tinted glass shone red. He was dressed in a similar white robe Raziel had seen his past Divus self wear.

"The wraith? Here?" Ambraxas asked, looking down at him with Ewoden apparently already forgotten. "On the Ark itself?"

The Hylden Divus straightened, readjusting his glasses. His face was devoid of any hint of corruption but there was still a calculating cruelty set into those eyes behind those spectacles, all the more insidious for it being entirely his own.

"Oh dear oh dear, not good at all." He carried on apparently to himself. "I can't have you all ruining my experiments, not at so delicate a phase." Promptly he turned his back on them and walked back through the doorway behind him. "Here, play with some of your old friends, Ewoden, while I let our king know that he has an uninvited guest."

There was a sudden loud grating sound and Raziel looked down to see two gates, which he hadn't even noticed, creaking open.

A series of low growls echoed out from the wall beyond and shapes began to move.

Ewoden watched those forms manifest out of the darkness.

"No…" He breathed, face filling with horror.

.

**_"The wolves that confronted us were unlike those Ewoden was pack leader for. These were feral, devoid of any human qualities that they might have had. Ambraxas had stripped away their minds to leave them little more then guard dogs." _**

.

Their heads were covered in scars, as if someone had opened up their skulls to operate on their brains, thick stitches visible under the thin fur. In lupine form the three werewolves came out towards them, padding slowly on all fours; thick steaming saliva dripping from open jaws.


	14. 13 Kain Metatron

In the event, Asmoedous' prediction of all hell breaking loose proved rather apt far sooner then expected.

The air was broken by the ominous low moan that seemed to reverberate up through the city itself; the floor beneath the vampire's feet trembling in response. The very atmosphere of Fanum-Divus, which before had been placid, calm and composed was now alive with resentment and anger; seemingly as if it were a bee hive prodded into action.

Clearly, Raziel had been discovered.

Homunculi by the thousands quickly began to fill up the corridors of the city; awakening from their automatic patrolling and guarding to file into perfect unison in squads of fifty; the sound of their marching in a constant echo.

Bizarrely, it was this militaristic behaviour that allowed Kain to track down the location of this 'Ark'. It was simple to follow the homunculi, who knew this city far better then he did, trailing them distantly as to not provoke their ire towards him.

It was all Kain could do to keep his thoughts straight. Raziel… out of the Reaver? Freed from that damning circular destiny?

The mere idea was so idealistic and hopeful that Kain almost felt himself on the verge of waking up from some stupid optimistic dream. He resisted the urge to pinch himself.

Of course the ultimate irony in this was that it had been Raziel-Divus who had secured the freedom of his own future self, no doubt producing another enemy to his god's ambitions, if Kain knew his Raziel well at all.

If they could combine their skills, resources and talents once more there was no force that could stand against them.

But why was Raziel here? Had he been captured and then escaped? That seemed unlikely.

The only other plausible explanation that came to Kain's mind was the possibility that Raziel had come to 'rescue' him.

That made him pause. Raziel rescuing him? Saving him from death and destruction, when it had not really been all that long ago when the blue wraith had been hunting him and his brothers down to exact vengeance?

Did that mean then… that he was forgiven?

For even entertaining the thought Kain mentally kicked himself. What right he did have to ask or even desire forgiveness from Raziel, after what he had taken from him? The best he could or should hope for was Raziel's allegiance against common foes, nothing more.

The 'dock' area, for there was no other word Kain could summon to mind, was the exact middle point of Fanum-Divus where it expanded outwards to its widest before retracting to points at its top and bottom.

Coming out onto a long balcony that stretched off some distance to both right and left, Kain stared down at it from this vantage point. He was not too high up. If he wanted a few long jumps could up him right on the edge.

It was easy enough to spot the 'Ark' as Asmoedous had referred to it, the only thing that was not a part of the city itself. The vessel was silly to his eye, large to be sure but made to look like a pair of angelic wings swept back upon themselves.

Vessels should be made to do their job well, get people and cargo across expanses one could not travel by foot, not puffed up to look like some elaborate swan.

Still the ship did have a certain ominous feeling to it, the longer he stared.

The homunculi were pouring out of the city, converging towards a set of scaffolding that connected the ship to the dock.

Kain would have to act quickly. If Raziel was onboard he had to get to him before he was overwhelmed.

A movement caught his eye and the vampire glanced up in time to see yet another winged ancient, like Asmoedous, flying over. It was obvious from once glance that it was neither the slight effeminate Divus he had just met or Raziel's first incarnation either. This one was bulky with a very well developed upper torso.

Whoever it was wore a white robe open at the front and in his grasp as a massive war-hammer; large enough to be seen from below.

It seemed most of the Divus were Ancient vampires, which Kain supposed made sense as his early ancestors had been devote followers of the Wheel of Fate religion.

Feeling exposed, he took a step back.

Perhaps the Divus flying overhead happened to simply turn his head at that moment, rather then sensing that minuet movement. Whatever the reason, the ancient turned to look directly at him.

He stopped suddenly in mid air, wings flapping hard to maintain himself in one position.

"What? Kain?" The ancient demanded in a voice loud enough to be heard from all that way above, his tone filled with stunned dismay. "You live?"

Kain found himself managing a grim sort of smile.

"Yes it's becoming a bad habit of mine." He replied, slowly letting his arms spreading out to either side; his body tensed for anything.

The ancient dived straight towards him and Kain drew sharply back, so that the winged vampire landed on the edge of the balcony;' the talons on his feet curving around the banister.

Close up his muscle mass seemed even better defined, developed not for the arms or chest but to provide power for the wings. His black hair was short and slicked back, probably well oiled and his face had a hawkish curve to it with a curved nose. The war hammer looked like it was made of obsidian, delicately engraved with gold and silver running in a complicated pattern down the two handed hilt.

"I don't know how this came to be but I will correct this right here and now." He said, face set into a grim expression. "I am Metatron-Divus, guardian and servant of the King, Raziel-Divus."

Kain took another step back, watching as the ancient hefted his hammer up over one shoulder.

"And for the sake of my lord I will see you broken!"

In a flurry of wings and black feathers Metatron launched himself at Kain; his war hammer swinging around in an arc so soothe and effortlessly he might have been wielding a ribbon.

Kain sensed the power behind that swing instantly and he knew that if he tried to block it, it would tear him in two. At the last second his body changed into mist; the war hammer passing through the vapour and emerging out the other side. Once it was clear, Kain solidified back again and launched himself at the Divus before he could bring his weapon back for another swing.

Without a blade to fight with, Kain was at a great disadvantage but he put his skills to use; slashing at Metatron's chest with his talons in an adapted version of the Cadaverous Laceration.

He drew blood but Metatron's wings flapped forward, the toughed muscle batting him away. Given space to compose himself the Divus took his hammer in both hands and raised it up over his head. As he did so the weapon sparked with blue light, bolts of energy travelling up the hilt from his palm.

With a war cry he brought the hammer down into the ground and when it struck, a wall of force erupted forth like a tidal wave; cracking the stone into fragments as it went. Kain tried to dodge the wave but it stuck him full on and sent him hurtling across the balcony to crash with a loud crunch into the side of the parapet.

The vampire's vision swam for a minute but when his vision cleared and he saw Metatron flying at him again, Kain leapt up into the air acting on instinct; narrowly avoiding another swing.

Metatron spun, lashing out with a free hand and grabbing Kain by the ankle as he soured overhead. With a lurch he dragged the vampire down and sharply slammed him into the ground. Kain gasped on impact, all the air forced out of his lungs; his body stunned and numb from the power of that hit. The pure physical strength Metatron possessed clearly surpassed his own.

Metatron brought his hammer up high again, preparing to smash Kain into the ground with it.

But Kain had recovered far quicker then the Divus had expected and leapt up, twisting in mid air and landed a kick directly into his face. Talons racked skin and Kain felt, with some satisfaction, Metatron's nose break.

With a muffled cry of pain the Divus backed off, letting his hammer drop to one side with his free hand going to his bleeding face.

Having gained some precious breathing room Kain quickly recognised his strategy. He was not going to win in a direction confrontation with this opponent; he was severely outclassed in terms of physical power.

But all the strength in the world wouldn't mean a thing if you couldn't hit your enemy.

As Metatron faced him again, blood stifled from a reddened nose, Kain slipped his body down into his lupine form.

He had not been entirely sure he would be able to do it, considering that all magical effects had been negated in the city, at least for those who were not of the Divus. The shape change was not entirely magical and was more of an evolutionary trait and if he could still change his body into mist then other forms might be accessible to him here as well.

And so it was, his animal form responding to his summons like it always had.

Clearly not expecting a metamorphosis Metatron straightened with his eyes widening in alarm.

That was the opening Kain needed. He darted in, teeth flashing as he leapt at the Divus' arms and face. He bit and tore at anything his claws and teeth could sink themselves into; thrashing about too quick for Metatron to bring his hammer down to strike.

More then once the vampire tasted blood and its presence in his mouth gave him fresh energy.

When Metatron swatted at him with one muscled arm, Kain dated behind him and scrambled up his back between his wings. The Divus swung wildly, trying to dislodge him but Kain hung on with claws sunk into the flesh. With great tearing motions he bit at the back of Metatron's neck, trying to rip into something vital. How immortal could the princes of heaven be with their jugular ripped out?

With a strangled cry of pain, the Divus gripped his hammer in both hands and themed it down into the floor directly in front of him. Another shockwave burst forth, this one radiating out in all directions from him. Kain was hit at point blank range and sent flying into the air, his animal body spinning several times as he flew.

He rebounded off the side of a wall and fell back to the balcony safely but Metatron seemed to have had enough. With two great flaps of his wings he took off into the air, a safe distance from the balcony to be safe from further harm.

He raised his hammer high above his head with one hand, blood dripping from the talons of the other.

"Homunculi, children of the dust!" He bellowed. "To me!"

Kain didn't know what force the Divus used to command their terracotta puppets but they responded to his rallying cry, dust which Kain hadn't even noticed whirling up from the walls and floors. Encircling and forming and solidifying, dozens of the puppets emerged out of nothingness with their swords, shields and spears all held ready for battle.

"For our sovereign!" Metatron added, ordering them to attack with a jab of his hammer towards Kain.

The homunculi formed a semi circle with their shields held up with one arm and their spears with the other.

Kain didn't wait for them to solidify their formation, galloping towards them on all fours and with one great effort leapt over them.

One homunculus came at him with a sword but Kain darted between its legs, making for the edge of the parapet. Two others tried to cut him off; their spears jabbing out to bar his way.

He tore into the one on his left, mouth opening wide to take the puppets neck in its grip. The teeth bit through the clay like skin, biting down until the neck severed, its disgusting liquid insides gusting forth. As it collapsed the one on the right stabbed at him with its spear. Kain dodged the attack and smashed into it with all his weight, knocking it to the ground.

Metatron dove at him, his hammer swinging low to try and catch him in a dive like some bird of prey.

This was the mistake Kain was waiting for.

He leapt at the Divus, clawing at his arms and slashing as much as he could during the pass. Metatron had to keep flying despite the pain. He could not afford to stop for if he did Kain would have him down in an instant. Finally Kain left go, satisfied with the amount of damage he had done. Metatron was trailing blood, a trail of red leading across the balcony in his flight path.

With a churning sensation the vampire reverted back to his normal form in time to smash his talons into the abdomen of a homunculus attempting to attack him from behind.

He was just brushing the body aside when suddenly it happened, the numbing weakness spreading out from his chest; sapping his strength. He ground his teeth, trying to fight against it but the effect was far worse this time. Perhaps he had aggravated it by transforming and fighting with such vigour.

.

**_"The weakness! Not now!" _**

.

He clutched at his chest, straining to breath as the attack sapping him quickly of his adrenaline and left him weaker then ever.

Sensing danger he managed just enough forge to parry away a swipe with a sword by homunculus and then a counter attack, cutting both its arms off with its own weapon. But that was all he managed to do. He had to back off, leaving the armless homunculus to stand there with slime dripping out its stumps.

.

**_"The attack on my strength would mean my end if I prolonged this battle. I had to escape." _**

.

Metatron was not going to give him the time needed to recover from the affects. Already he was circling, hammer at the ready. As shamefully humiliating at it was, the only option Kain had left was flight.

Summoning up what reserves of energy he could muster he darted forward, shoving a homunculus with a tower shield aside and leaping over the side of the parapet. Metatron dove at him in that instant, perhaps expecting some form of manoeuvre. But Kain simply dropped, falling down with his white hair bellowing out behind him. Gravity speed him up and Metatron missed him.

Kain didn't bother using the vampiric ability of 'float' to slow his decent, he wanted to have as good as ahead start of Metatron as he could get. Only when the looming stone of Fanum-Divus' dock grew alarming close did he slow himself, cushioning his landing. The drop still jarred his bones on impact. He ignored the pain and burst into a run, hugging the sides of the walls around him as much as he could.

Distantly he heard the flap of wings, the tell tale of pursuit. Now time was really against him and Raziel both.

With their presence now known to all in the city they had only a short grace to act, to escape, before they would be overwhelmed and destroyed.

With the scaffolding holding the Divus' precious Ark in sight, Kain bolted like a rabbit.


	15. 14 Raziel Convergance

The three wolves padded out, moving to encircle the two of them; keeping their heads turned to face their prey. They moved on all fours like animals whereas the werewolves of Ewoden's tribe had only resorted to that stance when they had wanted to run fast and in all other circumstances had remained bipedal. One wolf was a dark black, another glossy brown. The third was a slickly yellow and a great deal more fur on its tail.

"Radek, Ambar, Kheldar!" Ewoden breathed, turning to face each of them in turn; dismay writ large on his face. "It's me, your pack leader!" He held out his arms to them in supplication and entreaty. They snarled at him, snapping at his fingers when they came too close. They drooled like rapid dogs and growled, the fur on the backs of their necks standing up.

One of them darted in, snapping at Ewoden's flank with the seeming intent of trying to hamstring him. The emissary moved his leg out of danger and soon he and Raziel were back to back with the wolves moving around them.

"They can not hear you Ewoden." The blue wraith told him seriously, watching the black wolf dart past them following its movements. He was reading the tension in its body and he guessed it was only waiting for a momentary sign of weakness to attack.

"We have to kill them." They were not going to be able to proceed until these guard dogs were dealt with and that was precisely what they were now, guard dogs. They might have been a part of Ewoden's tribe once but whatever Ambraxas had done to them had stolen away the last vestiges of humanity.

Ewoden looked back at him over his shoulder, a stunned and incredulous look on his face. His eyes however were full of hopeless dismay.

"They are pack!" He protested almost like a dog's whine in his voice.

Raziel supposed that was to be expected. Wolves were pack animals and Lycanthropes were no different. The community of the pack was the central theme of their strange culture and killing members of ones own pack would be unthinkable. But Ewoden had the human ability to reason and had to see past his instincts and see the facts. These creatures could never be pack again.

"Then free them from his thraldom!" Raziel told him sharply. In the event Ewoden did not have to choose to fight his former pack mates. They chose to grant him mercy from such an agonising decision and they attacked first, the brown wolf darting in quickly and leaping at them with mouth agape.

Raziel ran forward, stabbing up with his right hand. In a flash of light the Wraith blade manifested itself on his command. Its twisting serpentine blade struck the wolf full in the face and blood exploded everywhere. The head came free from the body, a twisting mass of torn flesh, sinew and bone.

The body landed on the ground with a loud thump and slid a short distance, trailing blood.

The yellow wolf snarled, foam flying from its mouth and charged; darting towards them with great speed. But Ewoden was suddenly there, tackling it head on with his arms metamorphosing into the lycanthrope fur and claws. He grappled with his former pack mate, tearing at it just as savagely as it tore at him; a manic brawl of quick bites and scraps.

With the Reaver still manifested, Raziel turned to face the black wolf. It remained cautiously distant, watching him closely and slowly padding back and forth.

The blue wraith held his ethereal blade lower, almost inviting the wolf to attack. While Ambraxas' lobotomies had perhaps destroyed their human minds it had not robbed them of all intelligence and the wolf did not take the invitation, knowing a trap when it saw one.

Instead it quickened its pace, circling him more swiftly and when Raziel adjusted his weight to follow it, the wolf struck. It moved light lightning, darting in as Raziel began to lift his foot. It was on him before he could react, its mouth clamping down hard on his shoulder. It did not draw blood for there was no blood left in Raziel's body to be shed but rather spiritual energy began to leak out and the wraith felt its reserves being depleted.

He tried to bring the wraith blade up by the wolf clamped its foreleg down on its right arm, pinning it to the floor.

Forced to fight back with his left, Raziel grappled with the beast; gripping it at the throat with his talons.

A short distance away there was a loud, high pitched yelp followed by a loud wet tearing sound. The black wolf looked up, distracted for a moment by the startling sound.

Raziel used that moment to break his right arm free and drive straight up into the werewolves' chest. The wraith blade buried itself in the ribs of the beast and the damage done tore the skin from its body, smoking meat exposed.

As the body began to go limp he kicked it off him and it toppled back with a loud crash.

Raziel retracted the Reaver, dismissing it and its drain on his energy. He would be more economical he supposed, if the blade had retained the ability to feed on the souls of the beings it struck. That was not the case with its latest incarnation.

Ewoden was standing there a short distance away with his back turned to him. The emissary was looking down at the ruined body of the yellow wolf; literally torn in half with a thick mass of entrails linking the two halves. Blood and gore were dripping from Ewoden's fingers.

"We must push on." Raziel told him, rubbing the spot where the black wolf had bitten him. His energy reserves had repaired the damage but they would soon need replenishing.

"I will catch up." Ewoden said in a quite voice, just above a whisper. Slowly he knelt and put his hand over the dead staring eyes of his former pack mate, pulling them closed. Still kneeling he began to mutter something under his breath. It sounded very much like a prayer.

"Ambraxas will evade you if you wait." The blue wraith reminded him after a moment.

"This is more important." Ewoden stated, turning slightly to give him his eye. The pain reflected in it was quite palpable. "The alpha wolf has responsibilities to the rest of the pack, even in death." He turned away again. "I would not expect you to understand."

.

**_"Here was another facet of the culture of the lycanthropes; the morning of the dead of their pack. While they casually accepted the loss of their members during the hunt, those lost to such corruption as this were dearly missed and sorrowed over. I could not help but feel sympathetic."_**

.

Raziel stared at him for a long silent moment, before turning. He would not attempt to persuade him any further.

"Just make sure he doesn't leave." Ewoden added in a savage undertone. Raziel nodded without turning around and began to climb up the side of the wall, Zephon's gift proving valuable once more as he scaled the vertical surface.

It did not take him long to reach the door by which Ambraxas-Divus had escaped at the top of his surveying balcony.

Beyond was a long corridor, another of the strange circular ones that ran through the ship reminiscent of blood vessels. It wound down a short distance and Raziel could feel that same sickening sensation even more strongly as he descended. What was at the centre of this ship to make him feel so soiled?

There was a large chamber almost directly below the first, wider with many encircling balconies around the outer wall. The door through which Raziel entered lead out onto the highest tier and he glanced over the edge down at the floor below. The air here had an even worse stench then the first chamber had had; a thick miasma that made the air shimmer.

"As persistent as your predecessor incarnations, that is for certain." A voice said. Raziel glanced up to see that there was a small platform dangling from the ceiling, suspended by thick chains. Standing on his platform was Ambraxas, safely out of reach of harm with a gap of at least fifty feet between the blue wraith and himself.

"If you're here to stop me from reporting you, you're too late." He continued, arms folded behind his back. "Our king, Raziel-Divus, already knows of your presence. I have summoned him." Raziel narrowed his eyes. That did not leave him a lot of time and here, on his home ground, the Divus would have a far greater advantage if it came to a confrontation.

"He will be here within the half an hour, I should imagine." Ambaraxas added. Raziel's mind began to race quickly.

"I thought the Hylden were followers of the Keeper." He said. "Odd that one of them should be a Divus, the highest rank in the Wheel of Fate religion."

The Hylden blinked; perhaps surprised that Raziel should know of his people's religious beliefs and covered his momentary confusion by readjusting his red tinged spectacles.

"The Keeper and the Elder are not god's in the sense that the unenlightened would understand the term." He said. "They are entities on a higher level of reality then ourselves, existing beyond the rim of time and dwelling neither in the past nor the future. But the Elder allows for a great liberty with his essence then the Keeper so long as it is to his benefit." He smiled wryly, the effect more like a sneer of contempt.

"For the advancement of science and the understanding of the universe it was my duty to come to the Elder and implore his aid in my scientific pursuits."

Raziel scowled at him. If perhaps the Divus had had the integrity of their convictions they might have had an excuse for their actions. But clearly this was not the case. Ambraxas at least had become Divus simply because of the benefits the station offered. Raziel was certain now Moebius had been aiming for the same reward. All utterly selfish desires had drawn them to the Elder and they masqueraded their greed behind the veil of religious authority.

"His aid won't help when I kill you." Raziel stated in a low tone.

"Kill me?" Ambraxas repeated. "Whatever for? What have I done to incite your wrath?" He sounded genuinely surprised.

"The horrors you have committed seem justification enough." Raziel replied firmly. The Hylden-Divus adopted a tired expression and rolled his eyes.

"If you're referring to the Lycanthropes and the other Chimeras then you ought to understand that one does not get something out of nothing." He said as if explaining the concept to a child, full of insulting condescension. "Creatures such as they were desired for the first human uprising. I had to experiment to see what blends would be necessary and more often then not that means failure."

He dusted his hands, dismissing it of no consequence.

"My people certainly had no reservations about my work when I was loyal to them. In fact they desired it just as keenly as the Divus, for it was my work with chimera science that brought them the heart of their ultimate weapon. I made for them the Mass, a creature that could kill with a thought. When you bring results no one really desires to know how you achieved them."

The blue wraith stood there, seeing in Ambraxas all of a sudden something familiar. He had met another Hylden recently very much like him in intent.

"I once knew a Hylden who had the same pathos as you." He said out load. "But he had empathy for life; honour to tell him where to draw the line."

Surprisingly the Hylden-Divus actually laughed, a mirthless sound, rubbing his temples with one hand.

"Ah Marduk, who else but my old apprentice?" He asked rhetorically with amusement. "Is that dreamer still parading around his failed theories?"

Precisely how old did Ambraxas have to be for the leader of the Hylden house of Knowledge to have once been his apprentice, Raziel wondered.

"You'll have to drop a better name in order to impress me." Ambraxas was saying. "All he had to his name was some preposterous nonsense about speeding our evolution." He dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. "Doomed to fail from the start. A theory of no scientific merit whatsoever."

The blue wraith leaned forward and then spot in an ominous voice.

"And yet he managed it."

Ambraxas stiffened and stared at him, eyes wide behind his spectacles.

"What did you say?" He asked; his voice equally quite and strained. Raziel could see that he had broken through the calm demeanour.

"It cost him but he did it." The blue wraith said, grinding the revelation in. "He grew wings and he flew."

Ambraxas came to the edge of the platform, holding onto one of the chains that held it up; his face strained and teeth bared.

"You're lying!" He spat, anger clear in his tone and face. Raziel decided to push him further into anger.

"I saw him do it." He said coldly, watching the dismay and incredulity swim across Ambraxas' face. "He could outduel any of the winged ancient, even Raziel-Divus, in the air."

The fabled evolution of wings of their own would be a central part of Hylden culture, given how Ishtar had reacted when Marduk had revealed his wings. If Marduk had managed a feat of near miraculous proportions for the Hylden people it would be a blow like no other to Ambraxas' ego.

"You dare spout such claptrap to me?" He asked, predictably going into denial. "You dare… you…you..!" His rage put him beyond words, knuckles turning white as his grip tightened on the chain. With a snarl he turned to look down at the bottom of the chamber.

"Balor!" He cried.

There was a long moment of silence. Then the floor of the tall chamber emitted a loud creaking noise, a churning groan as massive gears turned, out of sight. The floor parted in the middle, a luminosity green aura pouring forth to fill the chamber.

The blue wraith stiffened, the appalling sense of sickness intensifying at the sight of the green abyss below. The effect was so strong it almost left him paralysed.

Something was coming out of that hole, some massive thing that Raziel had to strain to see through the light.

It climbed up slowly, a pair of long muscular arms pulling itself higher and higher. As it came closer, the blue wraith could make out the creature in more detail.

It was a chimera, a blending of many different animals into one. It had the vague body outline of a human being but was a giant by comparison.

The skin was a patchwork. In places down its arms the skin was torn and stitched, deep scaring lining the muscle. Across its chest it had a pale fish like scales and in contrast its back was covered in thick black fur.

Its hands were more like the paws of a bear and its mouth pulled back over shark's teeth. The thick lips were pulled back and held wide by hooks on ropes caught in its flesh, connected to a massive black iron helmet that covered the top half of its head; obscuring its eyes. A shutter ran down the front of the helmet, fastened shut by the same ropes that pulled back the creatures lips.

Spikes jutted out of its shoulders and won its back, showing that somehow Ambraxas had obtained a demon and used it in the blend.

It climbed up towards them, propelling itself with its hind legs rather then its front with paws useless for climbing.

The chamber trembled as it moved up, a head large then Raziel's entire body moving past their level.

"Master…" This creature, Balor, Raziel supposed, breathed in a chilling voice. It seemed to ripple as if the word had been spoken underwater.

Raziel felt himself stiffen in the monster's presence, that same sickening sensation very strong. Balor was not the source of that feeling but his presence definitely augmented it.

Ambraxas pointed a trembling hand at the blue wraith.

"Destroy that lying wretch!" He demanded in a voice that shook with anger. "Or at the very least keep him occupied until the King arrives."

Balor swing its head around to look at Raziel although how he could see him through its helmet the blue wraith couldn't say.

With a low growl coming from deep in its throat he swung its body around and raised a paw high up over its head to strike him.

Raziel dove out of the way, the paw coming down where he had been a mere moment before. The entire chamber shuddered at the impact and Raziel scrambled back to his feet, breaking into a run as Balor turned its attention to pursuit.

Its paws followed him, crashing down in an attempt to squash him flat. Raziel just kept running, looking for any means of striking back at the giant without risk. One blow from those paws would shatter his physical manifestation.

"Stop running." Balor complained, reaching around with a paw trying to catch him from the other side. "How can I kill you if you keep running?"

Raziel leap over the paw, the tips of his wings catching the claws as he jumped. The giant chimera used that momentary lag to grab his wings and drag him back, pulling him up into the air.

Dangling from a paw Raziel quickly freed his wings and had to sink his talons into Balor's flesh to stop himself from falling.

The beast let out a grunt of pain and swung its arm back and forth trying to dislodge him.

Raziel hung on, sinking his talons in further and summoning the wraith blade with his free right hand. With one swipe he sliced open Balor's palm. The blood that gushed forth was a mixture of red, yellow and green.

The giant chimera howled, reaching up with its other paw to try and tend to the injury. Raziel leapt from one hand to the other, sliding down the grove in the forearm muscle and into the nook of the giants elbow.

The only way to finish this battle and to finish it fast was to hit something vital with enough force to do some real damage; like the heart.

Balor reached for him with its bleeding paw and summoning the Reaver again, Raziel slashed at the arms; the wraith blade digging in deep. Balor reared back in pain and the wraith scrambled across its massive chest making for the left hand side and the heart.

But the monster arched itself forward and balancing itself with its paws outstretched and pressed against the walls of the cylindrical chamber; its monkey like foot grabbed him and pulled him away.

With his arms pinned to his sides Raziel could not use the Reaver to free himself. He struggled but the strength Balor exerted was far greater then his own. Slowly the giant began to squeeze, tightening its foot's grip.

There was a suddenly loud snarl from above, full of hate and loathing. Out of the shadows Ewoden, in full Lupine form with claws flashing, galloped towards them. The emissary leapt off the balcony and on top of Balor's head; his claws clattering over the iron of the concealed black helmet. Quickly the Lycanthrope scrambled down the monster's back, climbing between the spikes of bone that jutted up out of the shoulder blades. He bit and clawed at the flesh on which he stood, thick sprays of multicoloured blood gushing out.

Distracted by the secondary assault, Balor turned its attention and the pressure on Raziel's body began to lessen. With a great effort he freed his right arm and holding it up high he summoned the wraith blade again, jabbing its down into Balor's foot.

The chimera bellowed and swayed, stung by the pain. It seemed right on the verge of loosing its balance and falling. Raziel, propelled backwards by the stagger, glided to the edge of the parapet and turned back to look.

Ewoden capitalised on Balor's dismay by swinging around the front and savaging at the monster's throat. But the skin as thick and rubbery and resisted the lycanthropes claws and teeth. What Ewoden did cut into seemed more like blubber then flesh.

Gurgling deep in its throat, Balor reached up with his other foot and grabbed Ewoden. With a twist of its body he tossed the Lycanthrope away, throwing him to smash into the wall on the far side of the chamber.

"Nobody hurts me!" The giant growled. Slowly it raised its head up and jutted out its lower jaw. As it did so the hooks and pulleys holding its visor in place readjusted their positions and the helmet emitted the loud creaking of metal in need of oiling. "Let me have a look at you."

The shutter across its face retracted back to the top of its head, exposing the upper face.

Raziel breathed in sharply, taking an involuntary step back by what he saw. In that stark moment of clarity horrified him right down to his soul.

Balor's head was covered in a slimy green skin that oozed. He had no nose, just a pulsating mass of flesh for a face. Directly in the centre of his forehead was a massive eye, sitting enwrapped in muscle and glaring at him with a softly glowing blue iris.

The eye was more then familiar. Staring back at him was one of the thousands of eyes of his former master.

What horror and abomination was this that Ambraxas had been permitted to experiment on an eye of a god? At the sight of the eye the sickening feeling that paraded his body grew worse and he found himself simply standing there, unable to move.

Balor's borrow eye trembled and then pulsated savagely, discharging from the iris a bolt of energy. It sparked as it flew, flying across the chamber. Raziel had been so stunned by the sight of the eye he left himself open to the blast. It struck him head on and on impact it exploded, the force tossing him with some strength into a far wall.

Dust from the wall fell over him as he collapsed down to the ground, smoking rising from his stunned and pain wracked body. That blow had depleted many of his reverses, leaving him dangerously low on energy. The blue wraith coughed hoarsely and knew that his form would loose its physical manifestation if he was hit like that again.

Glancing up Raziel saw Balor leaning forward, eye trembling as it prepared to discharge another bolt. Ignoring the pain in his body Raziel scrambled back to his feet and threw himself out of the way, the second bolt smashing into the ground where he had just been. The shockwave from behind caused him to stagger as he ran. Weakened he did not flee fast enough evade a massive paw that came down with a loud thud, blocking his way.

Quickly he turned about to try and flee the other way but another paw cut him off, leaving him trapped.

Turning sharply he looked up into the looming eye that Balor held in its skull, staring down on him and trembling with gathering energy.

Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound from high overhead, the clattering of metal on metal followed by a loud wrenching noise. Distracted by the sound Balor turned its head to look up, fortuitously for Raziel just in time for a shard of metal to come hurtling down to and crash into the centre of its eye.

Balor screamed, swinging back and clutching at the sides of its head with both paws; the sound accompanied by another as the eye itself seemed to bellow out its pain.

"MY EYE!" The monster screeched, thrashing back and forth. A shape dropped down from above, quick and fast and in the dim light Raziel could not make it out entirely. The figure landed onto of Balor's head, a foot with talons gripping on tight to prevent itself from being dislodged.

Swiftly he slashed the chimera across the brow, leaving long gashes across the forehead and down to the side of the neck.

On the platform above, Ambraxas-Divus stared down at the battle in baffled consternation.

"Who in the name of the abyss are…" He started but then froze; mouth still agape. As Balor swung back, still thrashing in agony, the figure was put full into the light from below.

A tall vampire perhaps a head and shoulders taller then himself stood there. His skin was a pale green and seemed tough and leathery. His hair was long and snow white, loose down his back.

He wore golden armour across his shins and arms and he carried no weapon. The mere glimpse told Raziel that he had succeeded the task that had drew him to Fanum-Divus in the first place.

"YOU?" Ambraxas demanded in a hoarse gasp, face going even whiter. His eyes were staring down in utter horror. "IMPOSSIBLE!"

Landing on the edge of the parapet away from the blinded Balor, Kain turned to give the Hylden-Divus a large evil grin.

"And yet here I am." He said.


	16. 15 Kain First Labour

"Kain!" Raziel called up to him from below, his voice full of elation. Kain felt much the same way. The sight of the blue wraith, his Raziel, filled him with such hope and glee he could barely contain it. He felt like a fledgling again, the attack of weakness in his chest forgotten and prepared to tackle any opponent head on.

He did just that, the monstrous giant behind him lashing out at him with a paw. Blinded in its single eye, stolen or perhaps loaned by the False God, it was enraged and savagely it came after him roaring in frustration.

The vampire leapt up over the paw as it slammed into the wall and darted up the monster's arm.

Sensing his location by some other means then sight, it reached up with the other paw attempting to bat him away. Kain leapt over the paw and up onto the other arm, darting across it swiftly before the creature could pull it back. He reached the monster's left hand side and proceeded to savagely slam his talons over and other against into the huge chest. Blood of many colours spurted out with each puncture.

Kain's talons grated against the arched bone of the giant's ribs and he pushed past them into the deeper flesh.

The creature bellowed; mouth wide and full of shark like teeth. Seemingly out of desperation it swung forward and smashed its chest up against the side of the cylindrical chamber, pinning Kain against the wall. In order to save himself from being crushed the vampire dropped down, catching onto the beast's waist with his talons. The momentum swung him back and forth as he hung there, the creature writhing in pain and rage trying to get at him.

Its leg arched up from underneath, a monkey like foot attempting to grab him. Kain pushed himself off and using the foot as a stepping stone he found purchase on the edge of a lower balcony parapet and hauled himself up onto it.

The demonic blend of animals snarled and lashed out with its head, snapping down with rows of teeth.

Kain leapt out of the way and in mid roll, slipped his body into his wolf shape. He was taking a risk as the form had probably aggravated his earlier attack of weakness but he needed its speed now.

Even so the creature, now prodded into a frothing rage, was coming after them far swifter then he had thought and it plunged its gapping maw at him over and over each time coming close to his fleeing tail.

With a loud roar, that red Lycanthrope that Kain had seen fighting alongside Raziel leapt on top of the beast from behind. It, or rather male as certain extremities were obvious, clambered up between the spikes of bone that ran down its back and up onto the top of the creatures head.

At the same time, Raziel came in; jumping from the other side to latch onto the beast's arm. The wraith raised his right arm to Kain's surprise flourished the wraith blade.

He slashed at the beast's flank, slicing it deep across the belly spilling looping intestines that boiled out of the cut like festering worms.

The monstrous giant gurgled deep in its throat and put its paws to the gaping wound, trying to keep its insides from pouring out.

Kain took the opportunity to strike.

He bounded out from the balcony, using the giant's arms and chest as stepping stones until he reached its throat.

The flesh around the neck was mostly fat, probably intended to keep its windpipe protected against just such direct attacks. But it had already been sliced open during the battle and changing back to his regular form, Kain plunged both arms into the bloodless wound.

He literally dug with his talons, moving deeper and deeper until finally he grasped a thick column about the width of a tree trunk.

Placing both feet firmly against the collarbone of the beast he began to pull backwards, exerting all the strength he could into the effort. Blood began to foundation at him from out of the hole but he kept pulling, tugging with all his might until finally there was a loud audible snap, very much like the cracking of wood under pressure.

Kain's arms jerked back suddenly and visible through the vessel was the shattered windpipe.

The beast's gurgle was a wet one, accompanied by a fresh burst of blood from deep inside.

Kain leapt away as the beast, forgetting its spilling entrails, clasped as its throat. The creature swayed, rivers of blood flowing down its chest. Its limbs trembled as the strength fled from its body and finally with a low groan of agony the monstrous giant lost its grip and fell, plunging down to the floor of the chamber below, bashing several lower balconies on its way down.

The crash when it struck the floor broke the hinge on a concealed trap door and the floor itself caved in, the giant carcass dropping down into an abyss below. The trapdoor was already swinging back shut before Kain could look down to see what was happening.

The Hylden on the high platform who had distained to enter the battle personally, backed up in terrified alarm as Raziel glided over to his perch.

"No, get back!" He said in a shout lined with panic. He was so preoccupied with the wraith that he did not even notice the werewolf land on the platform behind himself. "I've too much work left und..."

The Hylden-Divus was cut off in mid sentence, words dying into a strangled gurgle. The werewolf had plunged into his back, pushing his entire hand in until the tips of the black claws emerging out the chest.

Slowly the werewolf morphed, resuming human form apart from the hand which had impaled the Hylden, which remained feral. Kain had always wondered about the werewolves ever since he had learned of their role in the ancient uprising led by Moebius. Was this one of their decedents?

"Aye and it'll stay undone." The werewolf in human form said. His accented voice was thick with contempt and distain. He leaned forward, pressing his hand further inside the rib cage. The Hylden, whose uncorrupted face was drawn and set with pain, vomited forth a glop of blood. "Hope you enjoy hell."

The werewolf withdraw his hand, the limb reverting back to fully human and let the body of the Hylden-Divus topple down to the ground. By the ragdoll way the corpse collapsed it was clear he was dead before the corpse hit the floor.

Kain climbed up to the parallel level with the platform and then vaulted across, causing it to sway on its chains under the weight of all three of them.

To his macabre surprise, the werewolf was prying open the corpse of the Hylden-Divus with his bare hands. Getting a firm grip he tugged sharply until the skin parted, the rib cage snapping open like a pried clam shell to display a gory interior.

Reaching inside, the werewolf-human took a hold of something buried so deep in blood Kain could not see what it was at first. With a tug he withdrew his hand and the vampire saw it was the Hylden-Divus' heart.

Hylden hearts were smaller then human ones, he noticed absently and they had a faint blue colour to them.

The human-werewolf stared at the heart in his grip for a long moment and then yanked it free of the veins and arteries still anchoring it to the body. He tore into it savagely, biting off great chunks of heart flesh and swallowing them whole, not even chewing.

When he had finished he had blood all down his front but he did not seem to mind the mess and the expression on his face was one of dreadful satisfaction, not in the act itself but rather in the completion of the task.

"My first oath is complete." He declared, turning around to look at the two behind him who were watching him in queasy fascination. "Ambraxas has paid for his crimes with his own heart's blood. This I have done for my people."

Kain looked over at Raziel with an eyebrow questioningly raised.

"Interesting fellow you've picked up." He remarked dryly. Raziel turned to look at him and their eyes met.

There was a long moment of silence between them.

Finally the two of them were united once more. But the tensions between them were still there, the age old apprehension of those who had once been determined and bitter rivals.

Raziel's stare was blank. There could be anything in that stare, friendship, hostility, understanding, loathing, enmity or comradeship. It was impossible to tell which for certain.

Kain hesitated, for the first time not knowing what to expect from his first born son.

Then the blue wraith waggled in his head at Kain, eyebrows raised to give himself a comical expression in an mock gesture of insult.

"It seems you're healthy enough for flippant remarks." He said in a light hearted tone that eased Kain's soul more then he could have thought possible. "Perhaps I needn't have bothered coming to your rescue."

He introduced Kain to Ewoden, the 'emissary' of the Lycanthrope tribes living in the city. Quickly and very basically he outlined the werewolves story for himself and Kain found himself disturbed afresh of how intervention from this impossible city had directed events in Nosgoth.

"The way the Seer was so insistent about you, I expected to find you half dead." The wraith said, interrupting his thoughts.

At first the vampire did not fully absorb the words for in that spilt second of processing they made no sense. When it finally did filter through he stared at Raziel incredulously.

"The Seer?" He repeated in bafflement. "You mean she sent you after me?" The blue wraith nodded and Kain was confused afresh. "She was the one who ensured the ambush on the Serioli and myself! It was her fault I am here in the first place!"

There was no surprise in Raziel's eyes when he said it. Clearly he already knew this and it didn't seem to bother him.

"We can discuss the politics of the situation later." He said and Kain began to wonder precisely what had been going on in the real world during his absence. "For this moment, we need to leave this blasted city."

That brought Kain's thoughts right back to their present dilemma. He had escaped Metatron for now but their time was severely limited. They had stirred the hornets nest and all of Fanum-Divus would be roused against them. Already in the distance he could hear movements, perhaps homunculi searching the ship for them. It would not be long until they were found and then the full might of the city would descend upon them.

"You have your father in you after all!" The vampire said winsomely, returning Raziel's own mocking tone.

"My father?" The wraith asked, also insultingly jovial. "You're nothing but a grave robber, Kain."

He reached up and took a bronze coloured broach that Kain hadn't even noticed until his attention had been drawn to it off of the front of his drape. Once the vampire laid eyes on it he knew it once.

The last time he had seen that artefact he had dropped it into the would-be Sarafan Lord's inter dimensional gate at Janos Audron's instruction.

He had never thought he would see it again.

The reason he had killed Umah.

"The Nexus Stone?" He asked; keeping the emotional sting he felt when he saw it out of his voice.

"I hope the intelligence that it can create doorways through space is not an unfounded rumour." Raziel asked holding the stone up for them all to see.

Kain had never had an opportunity to test the stone's supposed ability to open portholes to various locations. Vorador had claimed it could do it but at the time Kain had only been interested in its effect of rendering himself immune to the Soul Reaver in the current possession of the Sarafan Lord.

He had no reason to doubt Vorador's assessment of its power but he would have been more confident if he had had past experience with using it in such capacity.

Still it was better then nothing

"It seems our paths intertwine once more." Ewoden remarked, coming up to them after cleaning his lips with the back of his hand. "You say you have a way to leave Fanum-Divus?" Raziel seemed a bit taken aback to be asked by him and Ewoden did not wait for him to answer, nodding sharply. "I will be following." He said grimly.

Raziel, with a confused expression, looked from Ewoden to Kain and back again.

"But what about your pack?" He asked. "You would leave them behind?"

Ewoden cast a glance back over his shoulder towards the shattered corpse behind him.

"I have completed my first oath." He said. "Now I must complete my second."

By the puzzlement on Raziel's face he did not know what these oaths of his were either.

Ewoden shrugged off their ignorance of his culture without comment.

"The pack will understand this." He said and then smiled wryly. "Besides, neither of you seem to fully appreciate what we have done here today." The emissary stepped aside and gestured back to the corpse. "A Divus lies dead at our feet. We have taken the life of a god of heaven."

Kain had heard enough from Vorador and seen how they lived first hand to understand what he meant by that remark. They thought themselves demi-gods, subordinate only to the False god itself and they enforced that through their religious dogma. The golden haired slave race he encountered believed very much in their supposed divinity. He wondered briefly what they would say if he showed them the corpse they had.

"There will be retribution the likes of which will shake their heavens from top to bottom." Ewoden continued. "It would be best if we left, if indeed you can manage it."

He behaved quite casually but the hunger in his eyes was more then apparent. Kain understood why all too well. The notion of returning to Nosgoth after so long trapped in this city of enemies would seem like an opportunity to be grabbed.

Raziel seemed to agree albeit with some grudging resentment and began to offer to stone to Kain

.

**_"As I reached for the Nexus Stone, there was a flicker in Raziel's eyes, as if some thought or doubt had come into his mind. He drew the stone away from me, holding it tight."_**

.

Kain looked up in surprise as Raziel drew his hand back and stared down at the stone in his hand, brows creased in deep thought.

"Before we go any further Kain, there is something I have to know." He began slowly.

"Raziel, all of Fanum-Divus is preparing to descend upon us." The vampire reminded him urgently. "We have mere minutes, perhaps less!"

Raziel was not disturbed by this in the least, his expression turning resolute and set. Clearly he had made up his mind to be stubborn.

"Answer my question and you can then use the stone to affect our escape." He said. Kain scowled at him, irritated for this waste of time when there was not time to be wasted.

"And what is your question?" The vampire demanded testily.

Raziel stared at him and Kain found himself stiffening under a gaze was that demanding and insistent.

"Why did my clan have to die?" The blue wraith asked.


	17. 16 Raziel what I have made

The clan banner came down from the wall with the tearing sound of ripping fabric. Dumah held the stained clothe with the symbol of his fallen brother before him, a smile of intense satisfaction creasing his toughened face.

Over the past two centuries since Raziel had disappeared into the swirling waters of the abyss, Dumah's own dark gifts had started to evolve separately from either his father or his brothers. He had grown tough almost armoured skin and his skills with telekinesis had advanced enough so that he could now wind bands of energy around physical objects, including people.

It had surprised all of them when, as the remaining five clan leaders had started to evolve gifts of their own, Kain did not come to rain fiery retribution down upon them for daring to do so. It pleased Dumah no end that Raziel it seemed would be the only one to suffer such for what seemed a natural process.

With the clinking of armour, one of his legion commanders stepped in through the door of the broken building they were using as a command post. He saluted, carrying his helmet in his other arm; a red drape with the emblem of his clan woven in gold down his right hand side.

"The last of clan-less have been routed out and burned, my lord." He said with his head held high.

Dumah crossed to the window and looked out at the still burning city of the Razielim. Thick clouds of smoke were rising from the shattered and broken ruins of his brothers once proud and strong fortress.

"Excellent." Dumah said, arms folded behind his back. "Then their stain has finally been cleansed from the empire." He turned and gestured to his commander "Go forth and let the legions know of the final victory."

"At once." The commander said and turned to leave.

"And begin preparations for the colonisation of the forfeit lands." Dumah added quickly and with insistence before the vampire could leave. The commander bowed low.

"Yes Lord, Dumah." He said and left. Dumah paused to listen and his smile broadened at the cheers the Dumahim legions gave up from outside. They had earned their blood toast this night.

"Do not get ahead of yourself, my brother." A raspy voice from the far side of the room said, cutting into his pleasant thoughts. Dumah turned to look back over his shoulder.

"Lets not forget that a portion of the lands to the south belong to the Zephonim." Sitting in a polished wooden chair, one of the few pieces of furniture that escaped damage in the siege, was his younger brother Zephon.

While Dumah had grown bulkier and more heavily muscled, Zephon had developed in just the opposite way.

He was very tall now and his limbs seemed almost emaciated. He wasn't stick thin but there was an insect like quality to his body. He sat cross legged even on such a comfortable chair, as if that was the only posture he could assume while sitting.

The Dumahim legions, and Dumah himself, wore polished black armour and carried heavy swords and axes. The Zephoim on the other hand were light skirmishes and preferred ranged weapons such as crossbows and light armour made of leather. Zephon wore such a garment and at close range it was easy to tell the leather was made from human remains.

"You've hardly let me forget that throughout this entire campaign." Dumah said with a snort. If it had been feasible he would much have preferred to have undertaken the operations with his forces alone but the Razielim, even without a clan leader, had outnumbered his own army. In order to take the city he had needed additional soldiers.

"If I ever did you'd pretend we never had that arrangement and take all our fallen brother's land for yourself." Zephon said, tilting his head to one side. His sharp features were almost skeletal now and in the very faint light of dawn he appeared almost ghoulish.

Dumah spat off into one corner and began to turn his thoughts to the defence of his new territory. The Melchiahim would certainly try to take advantage of the chaos to take land and perhaps even the bullying Turelim. Garrisons would have to be built and maintained.

Suddenly there was a shout from outside followed by a loud and thunderous detonation. The ground trembled slightly and the two clan leaders looked at each other in perplexity.

Dumah made for the door. Before he reached it the barrier crashed open, flying past him to smash into the far wall.

"What have you done?" Standing there in the doorway, eyes blazing in white fury, was the Emperor.

"Father!" Dumah began, taking a stunned step back. Even Zephon had burst out of his chair.

Kain strode towards them both, fists clenched at his sides; a picture of complete indignation.

"I return from my Mountain Retreat to find the lands of the Razielim in flames and the legions of the Dumahim and the Zephonim celebrating in the ruins!" He snapped, fangs bared at them. Their eyes flicked from him to the hilt protruding over his right shoulder, the hilt of the dreaded Soul Reaver; the one blade all vampires in the empire respected and feared. "The bodies of my first born son's children lie scattered like discarded faeces!"

Kain had not drawn the Reaver yet but he was clearly in the mood where he might very well do just that.

"Answer my question!" He demanded of them. "What have you done!"

Dumah was the first to recover some of his bravado and stiffened under the Emperor's harsh accusatory glare.

"The Razielim were an affront to your rule, Father!" He said but did not quite meet his eye. "They spread dissention and rebellion amongst the other clans. They incited riots."

Perhaps given courage by Dumah's example, Zephon stepped to his brother's side.

"With no clan leader they are only one step above humans and thus have no rights in the empire." He said and Dumah nodded sharply in agreement.

"They needed to be put down like the stray animals they were." The elder sibling concluded.

Kain stared at them, eyes wide and lips pressed tightly together. Silence dragged on for perhaps a minute before, which is body trembling in rage, he began to speak.

"You blind, self important, misguided fools!" The Emperor hissed. "You can not understand the harm you have done to the Empire this day!"

The two of them wore identical expressions of confusion at his statement. With a snarl of disgust Kain turned from them, his imperial drape and long white hair trailing out behind him.

"This is the start of it, the decline of our twilight." He said in a subdued tone, tinged with dismay. "When we are reduced to cannibalistic murder of our fellow vampires, the devolution is not far behind."

Dumah bristled at his words and indignantly he snorted.

"You say it makes us weak if we purge the undesirable elements from our society?" He asked and looked around at the shattered room in which they stood. "Just the opposite!"

Kain glared at him from over his shoulder but Dumah was not deterred and carried on talking.

"Raziel's traitorous bloodlines have been erased. Such a cleansing will do nothing but good to the faithful."

With a snarl, Kain swung around and grabbed Dumah by the chest guard of his armour. With a sharp push he shoved his son against the wall and held him there. His free hand went back to grip the hilt of the claymore strapped across his back.

"You had no authority to make that decision!" He spat, fuming with rage. Zephon stayed perhaps still, watching them with an emotionless face but a great anxiety in his eyes; perhaps wondering if he should use the opportunity to slip away.

"All vampires in the empire belong to me!" Kain told the startled Dumah who by now only had eyes for the hand around the Soul Reaver's hilt. "I allow you to hold your clans only at my sufferance!"

The Emperor's muscled tensed and he almost seemed ready to draw the blade. If he did, Dumah's fate was sealed.

"With no clan leader to hold them, the Razielim reverted to my thraldom. They were MY chattel!"

He held Dumah there for a long silent moment and then he let him drop, standing away from them.

He looked from Zephon to Dumah and did not let either of them out of his sight.

"As such I should hold you both personally responsibility for the destruction of my property."

He didn't wait for them to reply but stormed out, leaving them both to wallow in whatever meagre and transitory victory they thought they had won. He could say nothing to them or make them understand why they had sealed their own doom. They would learn in time of their own folly but whether they would realise they had dammed themselves, even when the time came, was still to be seen.

Instead he immediately travelled south west, past the Sanctuary of the Clans to the valleys and ravines that lined the western coast. Nestled in one such ravine was the Abby, once a human settlement and now seized by the Rahabim.

Translocating himself inside the main chamber, Kain found that it had been flooded with diverted river water; hardly surprisingly as the Emperor had only just received word of Rahab's newest evolutionary adaption and past on in large part to the rest of his clan.

"Rahab!" He called out into the chamber, standing on the top of a stone pillar and watching the dark waters.

He did not have to wait long. A slender dark shape a little longer then the length of a man, swum across the floor of the flooded chamber. It paused and then shot like an arrow up to land with grace on another nearby stone pillar.

"Lord Kain, my father, you honour me with your visit."

Rahab's alterations in the past few centuries had been the most pronounced. His talons were webbed with translucent skin and gills stood out on his neck. Spreading back from the top of his head was a frill very reminiscent of a cobra's hood, small by now but it was growing with each passing year.

"Do not stand on ceremony, there is too much to discuss." Kain told him, noting with concealed sadness that Rahab's once handsome face was being distorted; the lips pulling back to the corners of his cheeks like a snake.

His son crouched there but at full attention. In these troubling times he was the only one in the council that Kain could rely on for impartial judgement and sound reasoning.

"The legions of the Dumahim and Zephonim invaded the Razielim clan territory." He told him and Rahab stiffened, eyes widening at the news.

"Where there any survivors?" He asked, his voice gurgling due to air escaping through his gills.

Kain shook his head.

"Not so much as a fledgling." He said. "I searched myself."

Rahab was quiet but his eyes never left Kain's. There was a sad sort of hopeless in that gaze that broke Kain's heart.

"Then it's begun." He said slowly and took a moment to collect himself, running a webbed hand over his face.

To face destiny with such courage… Kain wondered why all his sons could not have Rahab's spirit and integrity.

"You appear dismayed." His son observed. "You said this would happen." Kain nodded and let his shoulders slump.

"A calamity to befall the clan of Raziel, yes, but not of this scale." He lamented. "I had hoped to preserve at least a handful of his bloodlines. They would have been invaluable bargaining chips."

For an illogical moment he was severely tempted to go back and stake the both Zephon and Dumah out for human vampire hunters to find.

"But Dumah's zeal has robbed me of any early hope of negotiation when Raziel returns." He concluded sadly and looked at his son. "I'm sorry Rahab, but I can not shield you from him."

Rahab turned to look into the water, his eyes distant. Kain followed his gaze and he could see that deep down in the water were small dark shapes swimming about. They had human form and from the way Rahab smiled at seeing them Kain supposed they had to be Rahabim fledglings; already immune to water's touch.

"I would be lying if I said I was resigned to that fate." He said but without much conviction. "I will fight him with every intention of winning."

"As will the others." Kain said absently, watching the fledgling below swim. They were silent for some time, watching the water below.

"And the clans?" Rahab asked eventually. "When the clan leaders are killed what happens to them?"

Kain did not say anything at first and then slowly turned to regard him.

"I can promise you nothing." He said almost dismally. "Returned to find his children destroyed, Raziel might take vengeance by taking the lives of yours."

Rahab's cobra hood bristled and there was concern clear on his face.

"I would not see that happen." He stated. Kain straightened and folded his arms over his chest.

"Sacrifices must be made if we are to see Nosgoth restored and the Pillars returned to out governorship." He said and Rahab did not meet his eye. They had spoken much on this already along with what needed to be done.

"But no more than absolutely necessary." Rahab blinked and hen looked up at the Emperor in surprise.

Kain set his features and took in a deep breath.

"I want it understood that from now that the Razielim were exterminated under my direct orders." Rahab's eyes widened to near overalls, a very strange look with his fish like face. "No one else was responsible but me. You will advise your brothers of this. I alone will be held to account."

Rahab opened his mouth as if to say something but words failed him. He obviously understood the sacrifice his sire was making and seemed stunned by it.

"Raziel will never listen to you if he believes that!" He said.

Kain shook his head.

"No Rahab." He corrected him. "It will simply require more effort on my part to persuade him."

Perhaps centuries later, Raziel heard this story with a mixture of regret, shame and indignation.

.

**_"When I had seen Kain and the Nexus Stone together something had clicked inside me, making me want this answer, right here and now. "_**

.

Kain stood there, grim faced at the end of his tale and waiting for a response from Raziel. Ewoden was looking between them speculatively. The blue wraith was silent, looking down dismally at the stone in his grasp.

.

**_"I had always assumed Kain had had my clan destroyed as punishment for my daring to evolve before him. Now that I knew he had executed me not out of spite but out of necessity, my curiosity about that extermination had flared. I listened to Kain's story without comment, reserving any judgemental thoughts for after he had finished. It left me feeling numb and tired inside."_**

**_._**

Finally the silence had dragged on long enough.

"There Raziel, you have my account." Kain stated, his voice echoing. He raised one hand and then slapped it down again. "Whether or not you choose to believe me is entirely your own affair."

At this Raziel looked up.

.

**_"Did I believe him? It would be easy to blame someone else in hindsight."_**

**_._**

It would serve Kain's interest to lie to him, he supposed. He could not afford to have Raziel's enmity especially not now. His eyes focused on the stone and in it presence was both his potential destruction and the possible salvation for them all.

.

**_"But did it matter anymore? My children were dead and it was time to let even their memory go." _**

.

"Now are we done chewing old soup?" Kain demanded, urged on by the sound of pursuit drawing ever closer. Soon the full force of Fanum-Divus would crash down upon them.

Raziel straightened, standing fully erect. He held that pose for a long moment and then he relaxed, letting all the doubts and regrets flow out of him with it. For better or for worse his clan had died and no account was going to change it.

"Yes..." He breathed and handed over the stone. "Yes we're done."


	18. 17 Kain The Nexus inside the Stone

Kain held the stone before him, gazing deep into the polished gemstone at the artefacts centre. As he had learned, magic was negated in Fanum-Divus but did that apply to enchanted artefacts? There was no way of knowing for sure until he tried and at this point there was nothing else to do.

But why did it have to be this artefact, the artefact that had been the cause of so much guilt in his life? He had hoped never to see this stone again but fate had once again conspired to hurt him.

With great distain he lifted the stone up above his head and called on the energy contained therein.

.

**_"The power of the stone ebbed and flowed in my hands, a living thing with a heart beat of its own. I merely had to dip into its power to rip the fabric of reality to open a doorway to provide us with salvation." _**

.

The power inside the stone was incredible to feel. It was as if contained within this artefact was a swirling vortex of energy that appeared to go on forever. Kain stood there for a moment, transfixed by what he was sensing inside. The power was carefully hidden so that only a skilled mage might be able to feel its presence but once sensed this well of force seemed capable of overwhelming the user at the slightest misuse.

And Raziel had carried this stone without sensing what lay within? Had even the Sarafan Lord perceived the true nature of his thing?

The air before Kain rippled as if it were the surface of a pound broken by a thrown rock, shockwaves spreading out from a widening central point. Small flecks of light manifested randomly around them like fireflies, slowly but with gathering speed being drawn down into that centre and gathering together into a disc of light. The disc grew larger and larger until it expanded quickly with a low grinding moan.

The porthole was a two dimensional flat disc, identical on both sides and sparking with rapid bolts of red lightning that ran across its edge.

The stone in Kain's hands glowed the same scarlet in response, trembling as if the power it contained was only just being held in check by its physical form.

"Incredible…" Ewoden breathed, staring with wide eyes at the oval rip in space before them. Slowly the emissary reached out for the doorway with trembling hand, perhaps not fully believing that for the first time in centuries he was seeing a way to leave Fanum-Divus.

"They have found us!" Raziel said sharply, turning about sharply and glancing up at the doorways leading of from the chambers highest tire. There were definite sounds of movement coming from beyond, many running footsteps, undoubtedly an army of homunculi. Their time was up.

"You two go first!" Kain barked at them, gesturing with his head towards the gateway. "I do not know if it will stay open once I take the stone within!"

Ewoden did not need any further prompting. With one cursory dismissive and contemptuous glance back at Fanum-Divus, his prison for years, he hurled himself into the open porthole. Instantly he vanished into the light, disappearing with a loud groan from the gate as it accepted him.

Raziel kept his eyes on the tier above for few moments longer before he turned, the ruined membrane of his wings flapping.

"If I am rent asunder to remain dispersed through the ether, I am going to be very upset with you, Kain!" He declared and followed Ewoden through, leaping into it rather like a dive.

Just as he vanished, Kain turned his head to watch several homunculi came out onto the balcony behind them. They were followed by more, and those in turn were followed by even more. The full garrison of Fanum-Divus was pouring into the Ark to come after them.

With the Nexus Stone tight in his grasp the vampire ran at the porthole and charged straight into it, leaving the impossible city behind.

The void beyond was chaos, a twisting tunnel of twirling light that seemed to go on forever in a drop of endless miles. Kain barely had time to perceive it before some invisible wind picked up like a discard sheet of parchment and carried him off. He struggled, desperately holding onto the still glowing Nexus Stone but he was as powerless as a ragdoll before the vortex.

As he tumbled end of end he opened one eye, watching the whirling of red and white lights around them. These lights were everywhere, all spinning around a central point around him as he fell.

At times he seemed to catch sight of Raziel falling nearby or Ewoden at others but sightings of them were as fleeting as anything else and all he could do was endure the fall.

.

**_"The vortex groaned like a living animal in pain, twisting and turning as if alive. Suddenly I realised what was wrong."_**

**_._**

Surly this could not be normal for the stone's usage? If this was indeed the common means of transport through its use the Sarafan Lord would have found it unusable in his operation of the ancient device beneath Meridian. Clearly something was wrong here.

.

**_"Having opened a porthole from an impossible location, the space between nothing and everything, the passageway was dangerous unstable. The merest outside stimulus might send us plummeting into oblivion." _**

.

Kain had to have faith that the stone he still held would guide them through to the destination he had chosen, the Pillars of Nosgoth, the only location he could think of at short notice.

Suddenly there was a loud groaning sound followed by a tearing, the kind of sound made when a large rock ripped itself in half. The entire vortex seemed to quiver as if struck and a high pitched wail echoed out from the swirling lights.

Kain glanced back the way they had come, seeing with disbelieving eyes a pair of hands plunge in through the side of the vortex wall. The cloven hands griped the edge of the tear it was making and began to force it open wider. The vortex around them screeched in protest, quivering and rippling faster and faster.

"KAIN!"

Holding the rip in the side of the vortex open was Raziel-Divus, black hair streaming back from his face and eyes ablaze with anger. With bared fangs he kept forcing the tear he had made wider and wider, his wings coming through to buttress the hole above.

Kain stared back at him in stunned amazement. How could this even be possible? What kind of awesome power allowed him to carve open the vortex to pursue them even here?

"You will not escape me, not this time!" The King of Fanum-Divus snarled. The whirling lights of the vortex shook in response, spinning around faster and faster until they blurred into a uniform light.

Roaring in rage Raziel-Divus reached out with his right hand attempting to grab Kain and draw him back, to take him back to Fanum-Divus and to be at his mercy.

"I can not permit this." Another voice echoed up from deep within the whirlwind of light, a strange alien voice and in response to it the lights that formed this place suddenly stopped spinning. The Nexus stone in Kain's grip trembled almost jumping out of his hands.

"Be gone!" The lights hung there stationary for a single instant before as one they turned and flew towards Raziel-Divus and the rip he was making. In that single instant Kain saw that each and ever orb had a face.

"What is this?" The king of Fanum-Divus demanded in stunned incredulity as the lights few at him. In a surge they rushed him and Kain felt once more that same unending power he had sensed in the stone before.

There was a flare of light so bright Kain had to look away, shielding his eyes with his arms. He heard a crash of some kind and immediate a shockwave past through his body, a ripple that seemed to distort his flesh as it went and then put it back together the way it had found it.

Then another one struck him, far stronger in impact then the first and sent him hurtling away from the rip in the tunnel that Divus had made.

"NO!" He heard his enemy cry in dismay but it trailed off quickly with the distance the vampire travelled swiftly away.

.

**_"I was thrown from Raziel and his companion, tumbling down through a swirling vortex of alien souls; delivered by the tides of chaos to the shore of reality."_**

.

Unable to do anything else, Kain clung to the stone, believing in some superstitious way that the only reason he hadn't been killed so far as the fact that he had it. The artefact trembled violently in his grasp seemingly to want to burst out from his hands and fly away.

He curved in on himself, clutching his knees in a foetal position, becoming a streamlined ball that travelled faster and faster. There seemed to be no end to his journey, carried swiftly on with nothing to slow him down.

"Kain." It was another voice, speaking to him out of the chaos, It was a familiar voice, a voice that had burned itself into his subconscious eons ago. His eyes snapped open wide and he beheld that travelling with him, matching his speed was a faint orb of blue light. It was almost directly in front of his face and its presence was the same as the voice; familiar to the point where it hurt.

He could not say how but he knew it was her; the one person for whom he might have been selfishly tempted to alter the time stream to allow her to become his Empresses.

"Follow me, Kain." Her essence, her soul, told him and to his surprise Kain found that he could follow her.

The blue sphere drifted away from him and he followed in its wake, drifting through the storm of colour.

The spheres all around him began to wail, a despairing sound of thousands upon thousands of voices all joined together in a song of despair.

.

**_ "The guiding light led my back, back to the world I knew; a blessed lighthouse guiding me to safety." _**

.

There was a way out, a light at the end of the tunnel. The blue sphere increased the speed of her voyage towards it. Kain followed, the sight of that whiet light filling him with hope of escape.

The wail all around him increased in volume, reaching up to a mighty deafening crescendo. The vampire's ears felt like they were going to burst for it was so loud, his head throbbing like a pulsating heart.

There was a condensing sensation, as if his entire being were being squeezed through a very small opening and then…

Cold.

He could feel the cold all around him, falling on him building up around him. He drew in the air, it was like ice.

Kain pushed his eyes open and found himself looking down across a hillside, covered in thick snow.

Thick flakes were falling all around him, obscuring the horizon and anything else outside of a few meters. As he sat up, he had to shrug about two inches of snow off his back. Clearly he had been lying there for some time even though it had seemed like only an instant.

.

**_"I had no way of knowing where I was, or when I was."_**

.

He coughed and turned to lie on his back, letting his body recover some strength. Gazing up at the sky he could see a pale dim glowing orb high up, concealed by an overcast bank of clouds. Ironically, for a vampire, the sun was a welcome sight.

.

**_"But the sky was there, the ground was there and everything else I would expect to see."_**

**_._**

He didn't know what had happened to Raziel and Ewoden. He couldn't sense them nearby or within the range of his mind sense. He had to assume, and hope, that if he had managed to make it so had they.

The vampire felt weak, badly in need of blood to replenish his energies but nevertheless he was very much alive and out of the grip of his enemies.

.

**_"Regardless of my specific destination I had returned to Nosgoth." _**


	19. 18 Raziel Province of the Lion

Book 2: Odyssey

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.

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**_"For a time I drifted, strength ebbing and when I finally awoke it was to the distant lamentations of wandering souls." _**

.

Slowly Raziel pushed his eyes open, observing for some time without moving the distorting blue haze through which he viewed the sky. The sun overhead was a blue ball of flimsy light that seemed to burn with a fire that burned like one on a hearth.

For a short while after regaining consciousness, his body was numb and refused to respond to his commands. His sense of time had been distorted and he could not say how long he had been lying there before he had awakened.

With some effort he forced himself up into a sitting position. The exertion made his head swim and he held it in both hands, groggily shaking himself to clear the cloudiness from his mind.

Around him was the unmistakable blue tinged perspective of the spectral realm, the distant whistle of ethereal winds echoing on the horizon. This meant that after he had entered that porthole he must have lost his physical manifestation.

.

**_"I had no earthly idea of where I was, only that the distorting city of Fanum-Divus was left behind."_**

.

Due to its impossible location Fanum-Divus had had no shadowy opposite in the realm of the dead and as such his being on this plane proved that he was no longer there. But precisely where he had ended up was a mystery to him.

Glancing around he observed tall stone walls of some building to his left, distorted into slanted columns by the spectral world geography. From the architecture it looked to be part of a common human dwelling. There were other such buildings around as well, dotted off across a courtyard of stone.

He seemed to be on the outskirts of some settlement, surrounded by thick black pines that loomed up large and menacing in the spectral ambience.

This caused Raziel some confusion. He had left for Fanum-Divus from the corrupted future of Kain's fallen empire, where the only human structure had been the Citadel. This building suggested that he had travelled back in time. But how was that possible? Had journey from the space between nothing and everything allowed them to inadvertently traverse time?

Or perhaps the journey using the power of the Nexus Stone had been so unstable that it had resulted in their dropping into the time stream? Thought of the stone made him look down at his chest where he had kept the stone, clipped to his clan drape. It was gone. Yes of course, he had managed to give it to Kain after all. Its absence caused him no small amount of relief.

Travelling with an artefact that if used properly could destroy him had been a little unnerving to say he very least.

With one hand against the side of the wall for support, the blue wraith managed to get to his feet.

"Ariel?" He asked out load, reaching into his mind to that new presence within his soul. "Can you hear me?" She was still there but her essence was more distant, diminished somehow and he sensed from her a great fatigue and weariness. That he could more then understand. He felt drained himself, overcome by that taxing return trip.

He only hoped Kain and Ewoden had managed to survive it. He would have to find them.

But as of this moment Raziel had other priorities. His essence felt weak and drained, all his reserves of energy gone. He would have to replenish them and quickly.

The blue wraith explored, watching around for wandering lost souls he could devour. As he walked he observed the buildings he past and concluded this settlement was a human town, perhaps a village. A community such as this would surely have the souls of deceased members of the society circling around.

His intuition proved right. It was not two minutes before he spotted the soul, floating around the rooftop of a building at the far end of town; perhaps it had lived here before it died.

Raziel made his way towards it. But before he could take the opportunity to devour it, the soul quivered in dismay and then was drawn down. With an agonised squeal the spirit was ensnared by the grasp of a Sluagh. The craven spectral creature drew the soul in and it vanished down its gaping maw with a moan of agony.

There was a pack of them, perhaps about seven in all, lurking in and around those houses. Raziel paused to observe them, counting each in turn and noting the largest, a quadrupedal creature lurking around the back of a building that had the look of a tavern.

For any other pack enemy Raziel would have waited until he could come up with a better strategic plan. But for Sluagh, the scavengers of the underworld, that was not necessary.

He charged at them, darting in quick and fast. The nearest turned to see him coming and let out a startled yelp. The blue wraith's talons rank into its strange flesh and he cleaved it, slicing into its body. Fatally injured the body of the spectral creature went transparent, loosing cohesion and becoming ethereal.

Raziel wasted no time and drew down his cowl with one hand. The creature wailed but like water down a drain it was sucked inside, its energy becoming Raziel's own. His strength bolstered Raziel spun about to meet the enraged attack of two more. Hissing and spitting like rapid dogs they charged him together, leaping up at the last moment.

Raziel ducked and rolled new life in his movements as he dove under their attack and out of range. Instantly he was back on his feet, talons spread.

The two recovered and separated, trying to come at him from both sides. That was a mistake. Raziel ran at one of them and slashed it through the face with his talons. It shrieked and staggered back, the spiritual energy that was its lifeblood seeping through the claws it held to the wound.

The second tried to attack the blue wraith from behind but he spun and lashed out with a kick at the last second, knocking it backwards. As it staggered he focused his mind and struck at it with the full force of a telekentic bolt. The impact at such close range sent the creature flying.

The injured Sluagh came at him again but he dodged its clumsy lunge and slashed down its unprotected back with his talons. With its energy lost its body faded, becoming transparent and the blue wraith devoured it instantly; drawing the beast in and swallowing it whole.

With most of his strength restored Raziel turned in time to see the largest member of the pack, the quadruped as it galloped at him.

It attacked him with arms outspread to smash but Raziel side stepped avoiding the lunge. Risking the energy sapping affect he summoned the wraith blade and with a flourish he cleaved the creature across the chest slicing deep.

The Sluagh recoiled in pain but Raziel pressed his counter attack, twisting the blade of his soul deeper inside until it burst out the other side. Impaled thus, the creature lost its vital composition and Raziel devoured it right there and then.

Like with all pack animals the courage of any Sluagh was a reflection of the strength of the pack itself. With its apparent leader devoured and another few of their number lost, the others decided that they would not challenge him and turned and ran.

But Raziel did not simply let them go. He needed to restore all of his reserves of energy and so he methodically hunted them all down one by one.

When he was finished all his energies had been returned and his body felt strong and fully responsive once more.

He tried to take some of that energy and transfer it to Ariel. He had no idea if that would actually work she was not after all an entity like himself but he felt it worth the try.

Her essence basked in the energy but did not seem to improve. Clearly she was going to need time rather then feeding.

With his needs sated, Raziel decided to satisfy his curiosity. The lay of the land slopped and he made his way uphill a little way from the settlement. Here the trees thinned and parted, allowing him to look out at the horizon.

.

**_ "Nosgoth lay before me, a welcome sight indeed. But I could not tell precisely where in Nosgoth I had been fortunate enough to emerge. Was Kain nearby? And Ewoden?"_**

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With the blue tint of the spectral realm he could not say if the low sun was rising or falling and so could not determine which way was north. Before him the hill slopped down sharply on the other side to a broad plain. In the distance there was a body of water but it was too far away to make out clearly. There were no distinguishing features to help him indentify his position.

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**_"I had to find a conduit back into the physical world and investigate."_**

**_._**

That was when he spotted the chapel. It was set just a little down hill away from the settlement, surrounded by a thick iron fence which encircled a graveyard. Graves would mean bodies and bodies meant a way out of the spectral realm.

As disgusted as he was with this method of manifestation it was presently the only means available to him. Swallowing his pride he began forward down the hill towards the chapel.

A tree had collapsed across the back end of the graveyard, allowing him to enter without need of going through the chapel itself. Once inside he had his choice of suitable vessels. He settled for one with a simple grave stone near the back end. A moment of concentrate and he projected his essence down through the earth. Filtering in he settled into the corpse and felt himself shift back into the physical world.

The coffin had been buried deeper down then he had expected and so it took a while for him to pry himself out of the earth. As he emerged, the human corpse transforming itself into his usually ghoulish visage, he was glad to see nobody around to observe him. If a priest in the chapel had come outside to see him climbing out of a grave it would have given him no end of trouble.

He paused to shake the dirt free from his body and to check that he was all in one peace. The transformation of the new body was complete and it was as it was supposed to be, if never entirely pleasing to the eye.

The air was cold and the ground covered in gathering frost, misty and damp. The sky was a pale orange and growing darkener, stars appearing one by one in the firmament; a twilight.

Raziel could now judge that north was to his right and as such the broad expand with the water in the distance was west.

"Raziel... Raz…" Ariel's voice whispered in his mind, so faint he could barely hear her.

.

**_"Clearly the return journey had been as taxing for her as it had for me. As long as I could still feel her presence however there was no cause for alarm."_**

.

He needed to discover precisely where he was and what era he had been spat out into. To that end he began back up the hill to its summit to behold the village he had just past.

It was deserted.

He hadn't really expected otherwise as the settlement had seemed very sparse but from the spectral realm there really had been so way to know for sure.

From the state of the buildings it did not seem like the town had been abandoned, perhaps only one or two years at most.

Glancing back he observed the chapel as it really was, the door left open and swinging in the wind.

There was nothing here to find that might provide him answers. Grimly Raziel turned and started down the hill on the other side. A thick forest of pine trees lined the slopes, thick with obscuring underbrush. But the forest was dark and foreboding, a sense of decay in the air.

If Raziel were to hazard a guess then he would suppose he was in an era after the corruption or the fall of the Pillars.

Being back on Nosgoth felt strange, as if somehow being in Fanum-Divus even for such a short time had conditioned him to expect an impossible landscape through which to traverse. The mediocrity of his surroundings now was even more disconcerting then the initial sight of the impossible city of the Divus had been.

There was evidence of a road nearby and following that, Raziel saw other abandoned buildings. A wayside tavern with a crumbling roof, a watch tower set onto a rise with the door left wide open and a dark and empty barn. This might have once been a prosperous farming community, perhaps even managing to survive in a future were the land produced less and less food.

This abandonment seemed sudden and quick. What could have driven them away from this place?

There was another structure up ahead, a large wall blocking a narrow ravine on the road. As Raziel approached it he discovered it to be a gatehouse, the way to the land beyond open with the portcullis raised.

His attention however was focused on the craving that encompassed the gatehouse itself, covered in thick vines, ivy and encroaching moss but legible.

.

**_"The open mouth of a proud lion, fangs poised to bite... From Kain's boasted exploits I knew this symbol well enough and it was my first clue to my location."_**

.

The lion had its paws down either side of the opening and its mouth made the gate itself, stone fangs curving over to give it a macabre sort of appearance. Raziel saw that its eye rockets held tinted green glass, now long dulled and cracked in the elements.

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**_"This was the emblem of the Kingdom of Willendorf, a human monarchy that had existed when Kain had still been human. In fact, Kain's human family had sworn fealty to this throne. This was a good indicator that I was somewhere in the south east of Nosgoth and judging from the decayed state of this monument, it was probably some time after Willendorf's twilight."_**

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Willendorf had been one of the last human kingdoms to fall to Kain's empire, holding out even longer then the capital at Meridian. It had taken many combined legions of Dumahim and Turelim to finally force its gates and allow the empire to claim dominion over all of Nosgoth.

Here he was long before this kingdom would fall but also long after it's prime as a powerful and influential monarchy.

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**_"There was still no sign of either Kain or Ewoden. I resolved to explore the surrounding land until I found any trace of them."_**


	20. 19 Kain The house of Kain

Kain lay in the concealing shadows, hand clutched to his chest and his breathing harsh and quick. The attack of weakness had been a bad one, provoked perhaps by the trial of crossing over. It was subsiding now however and he was beginning to feel the biting cold of the snow around him once more.

When he felt up to it he pulled himself up to his feet, using the pine tree he had been leaning against as a crutch. His body felt shaky as if it would give out on him again at any moment. He needed to feed to restore lost energies.

There was nothing about him but unsettled wilderness, tall mountain passes lined with spruce and pine and ankle deep in thick winter snow. There was no sign or sense of Raziel anywhere no matter how hard he looked.

He still had the Nexus Stone and despite it being such a nagging reminder of that he would rather forget he felt that he could not simply throw it away. He held onto it, attaching it to the gauntlet on his right arm. It would stay out of his way until the need for its power arrived.

With no way to tell where or when he was, the vampire had no choice but to slough on and hope he discovered a supply of warm blood soon.

Fortunately that hope proved fruitful for as the stars came out at the beginning of night, their twinkling lights poking through the thick cloud cover, he came across a half submerged cobblestone road.

Kneeling to examine it, Kain deduced that while it wasn't a very well travelled route there were enough fairly recent hoof prints and wagon tracks going back and forth to be promising. Most of the tracks were tracing northward along the road and so Kain followed, using the brush on the roadside as cover so as not to be seen from a distance. He would have used his wolf form to cover more ground but he did not want to provoke another attack of painful weakness until he had a fit supply of blood to buffer against it.

It was perhaps about midnight when he topped a rise and spotted the settlement. As he did, time seemed to freeze in place for him and lock the picture of that town in his mind. He had seen it before a long time ago, but by now the memory of it was even more vague then a dream. At times he could almost believe he had never been here, that his life in this place had been put a dream and he had always been the vampire, Kain, overlord of Nosgoth. But this picture now frozen in his mind was a torturing reminder.

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**_"Here again was fate's cruel joke with its annoyingly acute punch line ready to jab."_**

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Even in the dim starlight he knew the place. The settlement was greatly reduced from when he had known it, having suffered a pestilence that cut the population in half and reduced the numbers of the peasants to such lows there had been no one to tend the fields. As such a once prosperous mountain colony had collapsed into stagnant decay.

.

**_"I had returned inadvertently to the seat of power of my human life, the walled town of Coorhagen."_**

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Coorhagen… even the name sounded alien in his mind now. Kain could almost feel the memories of his human life, long since forgotten and drowned, beginning to float to the surface of his awareness like bloated corpses on a river. Had it been so long since he left here? Thousands of years, eons had past for him. He had seen Nosgoth conquered, burned and then left to rot and never once had he even considered coming back to see what happened to the town in which he had been raised.

He had sent Rahab to conquer this region without a second thought.

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**_"I had lived almost my whole human existence in this place never knowing of the greater destiny that awaited me." _**

.

Regardless of how unsettling the prospect of entering this reminder of a life best forgotten would be, there was smoke rising from a few chimneys and that meant people still lived here. He needed the blood to survive and that took precedence of his personal feelings. With a grimace of distaste he made towards the town's shabby outer wall.

Coorhagen was almost in a state of collapse now and as the vampire drew nearer he could see that many of the buildings were patched, tiled roofs replaced with someone thatch. The wall was now hard to scale and Kain vaulted over it and landed with a thump on the other side, sliding quickly into the darkness behind a building. The faint starlight barley illuminated the town.

With night upon them, Kain thought that all he had to do was find a house with a sizable number of people living in it and indulge himself with a small massacre. That should replace his failing energies and then he could move on, perhaps in the same night. That would suit him immensely.

Unfortunately the vampire had to revise those plans as he came out into an alleyway, passing down it to the entrance of the town square. He froze then, looking out at the large central townhouse directly across it from him. It was familiar enough to cause him to stop but what really caught his attention were the two banners hanging from the upper floor windows. Red with a black symbol etched into it, a cross with an arch claw like top. An Ankh. Seeing it he scowled for the imagery was familiar enough.

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**_"And now I knew for certain what era I was in."_**

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As if for added confirmation, the door to the town house opened and two men in polished steel armour stepped out. Kain slunk back into the shadows to watch them. They were dressed all in armour only lacking a helmet, a face guard coming up to cover their face to their nose. Loin clothes hung from their belts, purple with that same black broken ankh etched into it.

These men were Sarafan Knights. Not the crusaders who had butchered countless vampires before culminating their genocide with the murder of Janos Audron but the second order, born from the ashes of Moebius' mercenary army and recruited into a new brotherhood.

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**_"I could not tell precisely when but I was clearly enduring the laughable reign of the Second Sarafan order, the fascist pretenders of the earlier order of knights. Mere puppets of the Hylden General."_**

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Then he had emerged in some time after the fall of the Pillars but before the end of the Sarafan lord.

After his first army, sired by Vorador, had fallen before the gates of the capital city ofMeridianthese pseudo Sarafan had capitalized on their victory and expanded their control to all regions of Nosgoth.

Evidentially their avaricious need for control was so great they felt the need for a presence even in this secluded town whose glory days had long since been forgotten.

Another man in armour came out to join the first two. He was a head and shoulders larger then them and had far more elaborate armour, with bigger Pauldrons and large bracers across his forearms. He carried his weapon in his hand, a curved blade that arched across a meter long handle.

They spoke but Kain could not quite make out what they were saying, then one of them lifted a wooden torch from a hook on his belt and lit it from another which burned outside the townhouse. With the illuminating torch they set off across the square into another side street.

None of them appeared to have the tell tale runes on their armour that would mean they were gifted with Glyph technology, that glowed whenever vampires came near. Most likely this backwater outpost was not worth the trouble to send any of those kinds of resources.

Kain smiled to himself. These pseudo Sarafan had done the people of Coorhagen an unwitting service. By their presence the vampire would not have to massacre peasants with whom he had no quarrel.

Scaling the nearby building the vampire pulled himself up onto the rooftops and followed the Sarafan guards, keeping low to avoid having himself silhouetted against the sky. These three Sarafan would not be the only soldiers their government had in the town and Kain wanted to hunt them quickly and quietly.

A mangy dog came out from another alleyway to bark at the three men. One of them picked up a stone from the street and threw it at the animal. It retreated back into the shadows with a loud yelp. Another of them laughed and they carried on.

Kain stalked them, patiently waiting.

Then when their unsuspecting patrol turned to enter a side street, Kain took his chance. He leapt from the building, relying on gravity to speed his decent. It made his first blow fatal, talons driving rough armour and into the chest of one of three Sarafan. The man gurgled in surprise and pain but shuddered and grew still as the vampire spread his talons wide, sliding into his heart.

Kain wasted no time, opening his mouth wide and summoning the dying humans blood to him. The injury boiled as if being set on fire and the blood seemed to jump out from it, surging through the air to Kain's waiting lips. Its warm glow filled him as it flowed down his throat and he could feel strength returning to his body.

"Vampire!" One of the others exclaimed, drawing his blade. The other lifted his massive axe blade to strike as well. Still feeding, Kain gestured with a free hand and sent a bolt of telekinetic force at the largest of them. It sent him sprawling across the street, his weapon clattering away.

The smaller darted in with sword held low, perhaps attempting to slash him across the waist. Kain spun and used his comrades dead body as a meat shield, the stab intended for him sinking into the corpse. The vampire kicked the body forward, slamming it into the Sarafan's and sending both of them tumbling to the ground.

The third with the large axe had managed to regain his feet and he had reclaimed his weapon. Kain darted in for him before the man could have a chance to react, reaching forward as he can to paralyse the human with his telekinesis.

Before, when he had taken part in the Cabal's guerrilla war against the Sarafan occupation, such men had proven a challenge for him. But that was before eons of dark evolution and had put him so far above humans in terms of raw physical strength.

He slammed a fist into the man's face, knocking him backwards and off balance. Then he grabbed his arm and pulled him close, fangs puncturing the skin and drawing out yet more nurturing blood. He drank deeply and fast, his body desperately drawing on the strength it needed. The Sarafan tried to struggle but Kain held fast, drinking more and more until the body finally went limp.

The vampire dropped the corpse and turned, blood coating his lips, to face the last of them. Logically, the only option for the human would have been flight but clearly the Sarafan was enraged. Blind with anger he charged again with his sword held above his head ready for a killing blow.

With ease Kain sidestepped the clumsy lunge and raked the man across the neck with his talons as he raced past. He felt them bite through skin muscle and bone, revering the wind pipe with one swipe. The man staggered past dropping his sword and clutching at his throat with blood seeping out from behind his fingers.

Turning, Kain almost causally drew the blood from the wound telekinetically summoning it to his lips. The human strained to breath, his face going more and paler before finally he collapsed to his knees. Then he toppled over and didn't get up again.

Kain wiped his lips with the back of his hand, flexing himself and straining, feeling energy and power course through him once more.

He disposed of the bodies easily enough, dragging them back into the alleyways and hiding them under piled garbage. It would not take the occupying force long to find the bodies but it would allow Kain enough time to make his way out from here before their garrison was roused.

The night was moving on and so did Kain, moving toward the far edge of Coorhagen's wall. He did not want to stay in town any longer then it had been necessary.

Unfortunately as he past by a street entrance, he turned and looked down it and froze. He froze because his mind made him, body locking into rigidly and everything around him seemed to crystallize and lock itself permanently in his memory. Past and present flowed together, meshing so perfectly what nothing he could ever do would remove this image from his perception. It would remain there forever now until the inevitable end of days.

The house he was looking at was physically no different from any of the other town houses in the settlement. It was fairly large three story building with large windows and a green front door, now tarnished with age. Above the frame of the door was a lion's crest, the mark of those loyal to thekingdomofWillendorf.

Kain began slowly towards it and each step he took was like a step back through time, back through eons of experience, back through centuries of imperial rule, back through decades of strife and conquest to the simple years of learning basic mathematics at his fathers table.

.

**_"To my surprise the very house where I have lived were still there, standing tall while the buildings around it crumbled." _**

.

He reached the door and stood for a long moment simply staring it with a haunted expression on his face. In this moment, that simple tarnished green door was more ominous a barrier then the Chronoplast portal itself.

.

**_"Peculiarly I felt as if it were inviting me in. I don't know what compulsion made me venture inside. Perhaps some vestigial human sentiment that made me curious to see the place of my birth." _**

.

The door wasn't locked. He pushed it open and looked into the hallway beyond. Once more past and present overlapped and found himself almost seeing padded eastern carpets and thick candles hanging from the chandeliers when all there really was left was rotted floorboards and rusty metal.

As if drawn in by some siren song, Kain walked slowly into the house passing by doors that lead into rooms where he seemed to recall had been larger; or perhaps he was merely looking at them through a child's perspective.

The layout of each room stung his mind, prodding more of the corpse memories to float to the surface to nag him with their presence. All furniture had been removed, all carpets torn up and the hand printed wallpaper faded and torn. The house had been abandoned and left to scavengers and the elements.

But it wasn't completely empty.

At the back of the house near the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the second story was a portrait, still hung on the wall. Its brass frame was tarnished with age and the painting colours were turning grey and covered by a thick layer of dust. Kain stared up all past that at the face staring back at him.

In some weird face it was like looking into a mirror.

.

**_"Here I was confronted with an image of my past, a past I had all but forgotten." _**

.

His face human bore only a slight resemblance to his present one. He had kept the high cheek bones and chin but, he was ruefully forced to admit, in his human life he had not been very athletic and had a far fatter face as a result.

Also his hairline had been receding, leaving him with a very pronounced windows peek. He had kept that partial baldness although his receded hairline was partially hidden by the crest of horns above his brow. He smiled whimsically at the thought of vampirism saving him from male pattern baldness.

So his human family had not just written him off as lost and then forgotten about him, they had remembered him and then kept this picture to remind them that he had once been one of them.

Kain wondered if they would have kept this flattering reminder had they know their prodigy had become not only a vampire but the soon to be Emperor of vampires? Probably not.

..

**_"It was sobering to see my human face and remember who I had once been."_**

.

Slowly his eyes turned to look up the stairs and there his gaze fixed on another painting on the wall just above. It was more well kept them his own portrait, the colours not quite so diminished nor as much dust on the frame. As such he could tell who it once with one glance and it made his body go rigid.

.

**_"And perhaps even more sobering to see her face." _**

.

She was so like his human portrait, with high cheek bones but her face was rounder and framed by long black hair tied back behind her ears. Her eyes were large and pale, a sign of the blindness which had affected her since birth.

.

**_"I felt a momentary pang of shame for forgetting her, her name and face recalled to me only by this reminder."_**

.

He ascended the stairs and looked up at the picture, for that one moment the persona of Kain the disruptor falling away, revealing the little boy who had walked around the house in awe at the blind woman.

.

**_"Ester, my elder sister."_**


	21. 20 Raziel Pay the Piper

It began to snow towards midnight, if Raziel was any judge of time, thick white flakes drifting down from a sky that had become overcast obscuring the moon and stars. It didn't settle on the ground as the earth under his feet was too full of moisture but it quickly managed to coat the surrounding forest's pine trees in a carpet of white.

Raziel had to keep shaking himself to cast off the snow that settled on his head and shoulders as he walked.

Beyond the gate of Willendorf he had entered the kingdom proper, dotted with small settlements and villages. Unlike those he had left behind most of them were not deserted although their population seemed strangely diminished.

One village Raziel past, heading steadily downhill into a valley, was almost abandoned apart from the central tavern building. Lights still shone from inside but the door had been intensely barricaded. Had the entire village locked themselves in the tavern for the night? What bizarre circumstance would prompt such strange behaviour?

This entire country seemed to rot under a cloud of perpetual fear, afraid of even the dark and the hidden things in the night.

Not long after passing the place, Raziel surmounted a short cliff that jutted out from the hillside. From this vantage point he could see the body of water he had observed earlier but now in far greater detail. It was a large lake, shaped like a crescent moon that curved south and east. This was the Lake of Serenity, so named for its calm almost undisturbed waters; rivers feeding into it from underground caves.

On the near bank was the township, a large walled settlement with many buildings in neat rows with flickering torches here and there to show signs of activity.

There was an island in the middle of the lake, joined to the town by a long stone bridge. Sitting upon this island was a rising citadel, a castle town with many walls protecting the fort at the top. Even from this distance the fluttering banners of the Lion Kingdom were visible.

.

**_"Here I beheld the capital of the lion kingdom of Willendorf. From here the proud dynasty of the Ottmar bloodline had ruled a nation renowned for justice, charity and fairness. Beholding it now it was clear that fairy tale dream had shattered, falling to the inevitable force of dark reality."_**

.

For all its chivalric reputation, the city of Willendorf was hardly the impressive harbour of goodness its proponents claimed it to be. Built on the bank of a river it was surrounded by muddy fields and tall seas of rotten grass and reeds. The entire area seemed to be turning into a swamp and Raziel could see where several outlying buildings had been lost to rising floods.

The sense of Ariel's presence had been growing steadily stronger all night and as he looked out over the scene, she seemed to pass some necessary point of restoration and slowly but surely her image seemed to manifest itself beside him. She looked drawn and weary, her long golden hair draped down over half her face so he could not whether or not she wore her corrupted or purified visage.

"Raziel?" She breathed, turning to look at him. He looked back at her and did a poor job of hiding his concern.

"Are you well?" He asked. It was admittedly a stupid question considering she was dead he realised the moment after he had asked it.

"I am recovered." She said apparently either not noticing. Raziel narrowed one eye at her manner. She was disconnected and dispassionate, as if the joy had been taken out of existence and she was merely drifting in it. He had not seen her so dejected since he had first encountered her, an eon's long prisoner of the Pillars.

"Is something the matter?" He asked. Ariel looked at him and then quickly away.

"No." She replied but Raziel stared her down.

"Ariel, you are not in a position where lying is possible." He said. As they were bounded he could also feel her distress, seeping from her soul to hiss like water from a sponge.

Realising this Ariel turned back sharply to look at him, her hair drifting enough so he could see that she was wearing his corrupted face; one eye a skull's empty socket. The other eye was full of doubt, confusion and regret so strong it made Raziel momentary flinch.

"I am… troubled." She admitted after a long moment of silence. "I understand now why it was necessary for him to live on and that my entrapment at the Pillars was an unintended side effect." From her tone Raziel gathered that this was not easy for her admit.

He realised that she has been disturbed by the presence of Kain when they had finally caught up with back in Fanum-Divus. The former Balance Guardian seemed at war with herself, torn in her own mind between what she seemed to think was right and what she saw was correct.

Drifting she hovered over empty air of the edge of the cliff, a faint image through which snow was falling.

"But I spent eons hating him with every fibre of my being." She admitted. "One does not cast away such animosity easily."

Raziel blew out air through his nose and shook his head, not for her sentiment but for understanding it.

"That I know all too well." He said, thinking of his own experience with his vampiric father. Ariel looked at him sadly then.

"But it's worse then even that." She told him. Raziel looked at her with a question eyebrow raised. She went on, explaining.

"Having being bound to you and seen what you have seen I understand now, in clear and bitter retrospect, that I am the one who damned myself." She claimed and her tone was self mocking. "When Kain failed to defeat the paladin, Malek, he came to me to seek a means of destroying him. I told him to find the Oracle of Nosgoth and beseech him for aid."

With a faint glow, her face restored itself to her purified form; whole and complete. She shut both her eyes and turned her face heavenward. The blue wraith could see the thick snowflakes falling through her insubstantial body.

"I knew all along that the Oracle was Moebius and I directed Kain to him anyway." Her admission was almost a whisper. She brought her hands to her face, holding them there to cover it.

"Of course Kain would not sacrifice myself on my behalf!" The ghost of the former balance guardian stated. "Why should he? I helped in tricking him into being the catalyst of the genocide of his race."

Raziel was silent, quietly pondering. Could she be right and this compliance of hers was what ultimately drove Kain to his decision to damn the Pillars? The mere possibility of it being true must have occurred to her before but she had kept such thoughts suppressed by thousands upon thousands of years of hate for Kain for condemning her along with them.

"I thought that perhaps Kain might be motivated by love of Nosgoth to do the right thing." Ariel said and there was an edge of laughter in her voice for such naivety.

The blue wraith cocked his head at her.

"As you said, you never gave him a reason to." He agreed with her. What else could he do? He would not lie to her and pretend that it wasn't her fault. Everything she was admitting to was completely correct and he would not absolve her of the blame. All he could do for her was help her to accept it and move on.

"And do you know what's truly pathetic?" She asked him with a self loathing catch to her voice. When he didn't answer she turned, her hair twirling, to stare out across and past the city of Willendorf towards the distant horizon.

"Despite knowing this, despite realizing that it was just as much my fault as it was Kain's…. I still can't forgive him."

Raziel looked up at her back and then sighed. Perhaps she had not come as far as she could. Admitting her own fault was a step in the right direction and it gave some hope to him that if he helped her, he could help free her from her own doubts and guilt. At the mention of Kain he was reminded that they had still not found him.

A fine thing this was, to find Kain returned from the dead once more only to simply loose track of him. There had been no sign of Ewoden either so if either of them were turned to Nosgoth as well he supposed they could be anyway.

Briefly he wondered if they had even been dumped in the same era and he inhabited.

"It will be dark soon, perhaps he merely waits for the sun to go down for better hunting." He said, turning his head to look at the city. If Kain was as depleted of energies as the blue wraith had been upon his return he would need blood. A city such as this would provide ample sustenance.

"Perhaps." Ariel agreed and her form softly faded, her projection vanishing and returning to her existence as a presence within his own soul.

He held here there within his spirit as he made his way towards the walls of the city, the falling snow helping to mask his approach.

Up across one large supporting stone buttress was enough of a series of hand holds to allow the blue wraith to haul himself up, scaling the wall as slowly and as quietly as possible as to not alert anyone who might be patrolling the walls.

Reaching the top he paused to glance over either way. The snow was really coming down heavily now and a bellowing wind turned the fall into a blizzard, obscuring his view of anything for a few feet in either direction.

While the cold did not bother him as a wraith, it did make him more sluggish and the snow kept getting into his eyes.

The blue wraith leapt from the top of the cities wall to a rooftop he could barely see through the snow, running along it before leaping to the next roof.

He could still not locate Kain within the scope of his heightened senses and in this storm it was not going to be easy for him to look for him by sight. It would probably be wiser to find somewhere to wait out the bad weather.

Obviously he could not just knock on a door and ask for a bed for the night. He would have to find somewhere sheltered but isolated and hidden, preferably with a good view of the township.

The answer came to him when he reached the edge of a long sloping tile roof. Across the street to his left was a tall building with a spire that pointed sharply up. Even through the snow Raziel recognised the shape of a chapel. Its windows were dark, perhaps indicating that nobody was inside. How ironic would it be if a building dedicated to god provided 'sanctuary' to the enemies of heaven.

A short glide from the roof top and Raziel sank his talons into the stone, swinging in the strong wind for a moment before slowly pulling himself up. The blue wraith climbed higher and higher until his talons found the edge of a window and he pulled himself up. He had reached the bell tower, with its four sides open to the elements at regular intervals.

Once inside he was sheltered from the worst of the wind and snow, dropping down onto a wooden ledge and backing into a corner. It wasn't exactly cosy but it did keep him dry.

Time began to drag on, the wind howling around the tower and making the ropes that made the bells ring gently sway; the clappers hitting the bells with a soft tinkle. Raziel's thoughts wandered randomly, skittering from place to place as he considered things that had no logical connection.

He thought about the Pillars and how Kain might intend to restore them now that they had crumbled completely to dust. Then without any connecting thought to the next topic he wondered about the evolution of the Rahabim and what possible use those hoods on the adult vampires had been to them underwater.

He was purposely letting his thoughts drift his way so he would not brood on another thought just waiting to sink in. What would he do if he couldn't find Kain again?

"Raziel?" Ariel's voice brought him out of his wandering musings. He blinked and sat up straight. She had not manifested herself and her voice had been a harsh intense whisper.

"Yes?" He asked, alert now.

"Something is outside." Raziel leaned back against the stone wall and slowly turned his head to the right, looking out the large arched window he had climbed through. It was still snowing outside but the wind had died down.

"What is it?" He asked, edging towards it slowly and cautiously. Ariel seemed to shiver in revolution within the confines of his soul.

"I don't know… but it feels wrong, like the smell of rancid meat."

The blue wraith turned his head partly around the corner to look out, taking in the street below in a glance, following it up along to a central town square.

.

**_"The being I observed was an ethereal entity, ghostly but physically real. I watched almost memorized as it floated over the rooftops, barley setting one foot down as it travelled. The flute it held to its lips piped out a sickly sweet sirens' song." _**

.

It was like no creature Raziel had ever seen. It was humanoid but with a skeletal build, arms and legs stick things with clothes hanging loosely on the wiry frame. The garment it wore was a bright horrid violet coat with tails and long sleeves and overly large cuffs, out the end of which came long spidery fingertips. The shoes on its feet curved back from the toes forming a spiral, hanging from the end of which was a small silver bell that tinkled with each movement the strange being made.

The flute it held, arms arched up so the instrument was always right before its face, was made of bone with chiselled holes down its length.

The head was perhaps the strangest part of the creature. The skull was elongated, sloping back over the shoulders with four spikes of bone curving back almost like a frill, covered in a thin and stretched skin that seemed to have turned blue with decomposition.

Its face was horrific, barely human with sketched skin being pulled back by the extra bone underneath. The nose was pulled sharply down, and the stretched skin outlined the eye sockets and cheekbones of the skull beneath. The cheeks were pulled back giving the creatures a gruesome sort of preserve smile.

The creature danced across the rooftops, skipping back and forth in a jovial manner the tails of its coat flapping.

Raziel watched, haunted by the strange compelling melody. As he watched, one by one the doors below opened; shafts of golden light spilling out into the night. Out into the falling snow came human children; walking out some even barefoot and swaying back and forth with their arms tight to their sides. Their ages alternated, some of them were in their early teens and others were little more then toddlers with ages ranging in between. There seemed to be about twenty in all, gathering in the middle of the square in a tight group.

The strange creature dropped down in front of them, still blowing its siren song on its pipe. As the being swayed, the children swayed with it and Raziel understood instantly that it had them all under its control.

The creature twirled about in a satisfactory manner and holding its bone flute to one side, marched off down the street. The children obediently followed their faces blank and uncomprehending.

.

**_"I didn't know why this creature sought to ensnare human children in this way or why I reacted as I did. Logically I knew I should have remained hidden and observed until I was certain it was no threat to me. But some deep instinct inside, a relic of both my vampire and human instincts, told me to save the children."_**

**_._**

The blue wraith was moving even before he knew it, leaping from the top of the chapel and propelling himself into mid air with his legs.

His lunge carried him up, arching in a dive before he came down towards the strange being.

It must have sensed his attack as it looked up in surprise, its song stopping in that moment. It was too late to avoid the attack however and Raziel caught it across the head with his talons, scraping it down to the jaw.

In the instant of the blow, whatever hold it had on the children snapped like a taught string. They all swayed back, staggering as they regained their free will.

Raziel turned to look back at them but when they all looked at him and saw his face, dozens of them began screaming and as one they turned and ran for the dubious safety of their homes.

The blue wraith ignored them and tuned to confront the 'Piper' as it recovered, holding one hand to the wound across its face.


	22. 21 Kain Second Oath

It began to snow towards midnight, if Raziel was any judge of time, thick white flakes drifting down from a sky that had become overcast obscuring the moon and stars. It didn't settle on the ground as the earth under his feet was too full of moisture but it quickly managed to coat the surrounding forest's pine trees in a carpet of white.

Raziel had to keep shaking himself to cast off the snow that settled on his head and shoulders as he walked.

Ester had been a strange woman. It had been common practise that when children were born with defects into noble families they were left to die so as not to become a source of embarrassment. Lord of Coorhagen, the master of the household, had overruled the convention and Ester had been permitted to live, albeit out of general public sight. The act of charity had earned him scorn from his enemies for permitting a defective and praise from his political allies for such mercy.

Her portrait now brought Kain's memories back through the flood gates he had erected in his mind to hold them at bay and it was if he was that boy again. Growing up he relied on her presence to shelter him from the machinations of his brothers who plotted and schemed how to get rid of each other to make themselves father's soul heir.

She had not been disappointed when Kain had killed his younger brother Abel in order to secure a place of prominence but she had been melancholy and for that Kain had come to regret the action. Not for the murder of his brother but for making his sister unhappy.

During his human early adult life Kain had performed many tasks for her, journeying to distant towns and settlements to be her personal messenger and agent; arranging business deals and trade agreements. In fact, when he had been ambushed by brigands and murdered, he had come south at her behest, seeking a trader in the coastal town of Freeport.

Consumed by his quest for vengeance and caught up in the inner machinations of the Circle of Nine, he had forgotten her.

"Still as lovely as ever." He remarked to the painting in a whimsical fashion. "I suppose if I were to search the grounds around Coorhagen I might even find your grave."

The portrait did not reply.

The Vampire stared at it for a long drawn out moment before he let his shoulder relax with a regretful sigh. He turned from the painting without another word. He could stay no longer in this place or he would be drawn in and entrapped by his memories until the Sarafan garrison discovered him.

He was not that little boy anymore or the human who might be welcomed in this place for noble birth. He was the Scion of Balance and his destiny lay elsewhere.

Just as he was turning, he felt a sudden jolt across his right arm.

Glancing down sharply Kain beheld that the Nexus Stone he had attached to his gauntlet was emitting a soft, pale green glow. The Illumination was growing stronger as he watched, casting dark shadows over the walls.

.

**_"Strange. When I had carried the Nexus Stone on my mission to confront and destroy the Sarafan lord, the artefact had been passive, silent and only reacting when needed. Now it responded as if it had a will of its own, a purpose unknown to me." _**

.

The light seemed to condense, pulling in around itself until it formed a beam that travelled from the stone iris of the artefact off towards Kain's left. Kain followed the beam with his eyes and saw that it continued on out through a nearby window.

Carrying his right arm up to keep the stone level, he walked over to the window and stared out at the beam of light as it carried on.

It lanced over the rooftops, rising high and higher until it petered off towards the horizon, fading beyond his line of sight.

.

**_"I was directed in no uncertain terms towards the south east. To what end was still a mystery but I felt the keen edge of manipulation cutting into my destiny again. What game was this now?" _**

.

Kain frowned looking down at the stone, its light highlighting his face. This mysterious artefact was clearly much more significant then he had thought. He looked up at the light beam again, noting its direction pointing towards a stretch of mountains that framed the sky and travelled down towards the south. One such mountain was quite familiar, a flat topped plateau that had the appearance of having its peek cleaved off.

.

**_"I had two options before me. I could follow the guiding of the stone to what might very well be a trap designed by my enemies or I could stay here, loosing myself in phantom memories of a life the world had never known. I choose the less dangerous path. I choose to go." _**

.

Unlatching the window, Kain pushed it open and stepped out. In mid step and his body suspended in mid air, the vampire's form dissolved into a flock of big black bats.

The flying rodents dispersed, becoming a thick cloud as they flew up high into the crisp night air; soaring high over the town of Coorhagen in moments and leaving it behind.

His consciousness spread over many small bodies in flight, Kain could observe the passage of the land as he travelled.

The valley in which Coorhagen nestled was one of the largest closed ravines in Nosgoth, sheltered both east and west by tall mountains that were almost like steep cliffs and backed by even taller mountains to the north. The land in between these natural barriers by now all under cultivation, small village farming communities huddled close in between the gaps of the patchwork of fields.

The weather was clearing now, the overcast clouds breaking apart to let little patches of the night sky show overhead. The wind died away and Kain's bats could make good time without having to fight against it.

But with the wind died down the clear unmistakable sound of clinking metal over and over again came to the sharp attention of the flock's pointed ears. The bats paused in their flight, their flock circling around in the sky while some of them flew down lower to see what had caused that noise.

There were people in the farming fields below, quite a few of them and they were all wearing thick plate armour.

His curiosity stirred, Kain directed his bats down to land in the ascent field. No human would think the presence of so many bats out in the wilderness at night would be anything out of the ordinary.

The bats came together again, hidden from view by the thick stacks of corn. The crop had already been taken in and the plants were all dead with the cold. Come spring the new growing season they'd be pulled up and used to fertilise the new crop. For now though they served as a cover for Kain's body to solidify unseen.

Once he was whole again the vampire pushed his way through the dead plants until he could make out the figures ahead.

It was a large group, more then thirty armed men them and they had their backs to him but he could see enough of them to recognise them easily enough as second era Sarafan.

.

**_"The Hylden styled Sarafan pretenders were out in force in the wilderness, sweeping and searching although certainly not for me. Something else must have attracted their ire." _**

.

He watched them comb the fields in a thin, beating at the dead corn with their swords, clearing a path through it all. Standing back from the searchers was a small group of soldiers with crossbows. The second era Sarafan had a strange custom where soldiers trained for long range weapons such as longbows or cross bows were women; their armour much lighter and form fitting then those of the men trained to do the brunt work.

"It couldn't have gone far." One of them was saying, another of the soldiers in thick armoured and armed with a huge curved axe. "The first man to spot its tracks gets to keep the pelt." At the encouraging promise of reward the pseudo Sarafan began to hack faster, some of them breaking off into independent groups to forage for themselves.

Kain had wondered briefly if they had been searching for him but they could not have found the bodies in Coorhagen that quickly. Also, he did not have any 'pelt' that could be taken.

Suddenly one of the more distant Sarafan gave a yelp of surprise and pain and disappeared, his body yanked into the dead corn with a loud rattle of metal followed by a loud feral growl.

A dozen Sarafan made for that position, calling for others to follow. There was a short scream followed by a hideous tearing noise and Kain could smell the scent of fresh blood in the air.

The dismembered compose of the disappeared Sarafan was thrown, flying in chunks, out of the corn field to smash into the hastily raised arm shields of his still living comrades.

"Is this all you can do?" A voice that was more a growl asked from the crops, corn rustling as something of considerable size moved through them. Its speed was considerable, allowing it to close the distance with the Sarafan before they had a chance to react.

A clawed hand covered in red fur burst out from the cover, black claws raking through armour as if it were parchment and cleaving flesh from bone. Two pseudo Sarafan went down, their chests ripped open with blood and gore flying out to coat the ground.

"Is that it?"

The creature burst out of concealment, vaulting itself through the air; a feral lupine form with long arms that swept through the soldiers like a scythe, knocking three of them down with a loud clatter. The men fell with agonized screams, great claws puncturing their armour and stabbing into their chests.

The wolf form of a lycanthrope was comparable to Kain's own feral state only with some differences. While in wolf form the vampire walked on four legs like the animal they were embodying.

The lycanthrope had a far more human shape, travelling for the most part on its hind legs and slumped forward; fore limbs ending in clawed hands.

The added forward weight enabled the Lycanthrope to run fast, quicker then human's were used to reacting. A few Sarafan raised their swords and charged the creature, slicing and stabbing and its back and hind quarters.

"Thick armour, big swords and no brains!" It snarled, whipping around to face them. The beast leapt forward and landed on top of one of them, pinning him to the ground to massive claws hands. "Stop wasting my time!" With a sharp tug the Lycanthrope tore the mans arms off, flinging the ripped limbs off to either side.

The commander of the pseudo Sarafan had stayed clear of the fighting and showed no evident concern over the loss of so many of his men, in fact he seemed quite pleased. The human turned to make a commanding gesture to his crossbow soldiers and Kain realised why he appeared so calm. He had sent in men in there as bait to lure the Lycanthrope out, sacrificing them to give his crossbows a clear shot.

Kain acted then, racing through the field of dead corn and reaching out with his left hand.

His telekinetic abilities, augmented by the Serioli gauntlet he wore; burst forth in a powerful shockwave that sent the crossbow women soldiers scattering, flung from their surprised feet several yards before they crashed into the ground. The commander, startled by such an unexpected interruption draw his massive axe in reflex.

Kain closed on them quickly, grabbing his arm in his talon's grip and pulling back sharply. His strength was sufficient to rip the man's entire forearm right off, blood flying out to speckle the snow.

The scream was silenced when the vampire punched him in the jaw with enough force to knock his head back with a loud crack, the man's neck snapped. His weapon fell from his hand and collapsed to the ground, the body following a moment after.

Stepping over the corpse the vampire set into the women with their crossbows, felling them with swift slashes of his talons. Several of them managed to get several bolts off in his direction but in their confusion they missed by large gaps. Clearly these were not front rank troops, sent to a quiet border settlement region because no other more experienced men were available.

Kain did not have any trouble with them but he felt all too keenly the absence of a hilt between his hands and longed for the comforting present of the Reaver in his grasp once more.

Once the last of them had been killed and left to bleed out in the snow, Kain turned to regard the Lycanthrope. Sure enough now that he could observe it without distraction, he recognised it as that one called Ewoden who had been fighting at Raziel's side when they had reencountered each other before they had escaped Fanum-Divus.

The beast was gnawing on a severed arm it was holding in one hand, chewing on it like a dog with a bone. When it spotted Kain, it lowered the meat and raised its head to look directly at him; ears flicking up alertly.

"I take it then that you are not impressed by the soldiers of this era." The Vampire remarked dryly.

The Lycanthrope snorted, its breath coming out in a thick cloud of white mist.

"I spent centuries fighting and outwitting the home garrison of Fanum-Divus." It growled, gnashing the words in its mouth.

The beast shivered all over and slowly began to shrink, his mass shrinking in upon itself and the fur receding back into the skin. Within a few moments he had become a man once more, naked in the cold.

"These men are child's play." Ewoden remarked, pausing to spit out blood and then wipe his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Have you seen Raziel?" Kain asked quickly. If Ewoden had been landed relatively close to himself then there was a good chance that Raziel was nearby as well.

"No." The Lycanthrope emissary said, much to his disappointment. "I searched but I hadn't found any scents I recognised."

He paused to look around as if only taking true note of his surroundings just then, an expression of baffled confusion making his eyebrows knit. He seemed now oblivious to the carnage around them the corpses of their enemies already forgotten, his eyes fixed on the horizon turning his head slowly from right to left to survey it all.

"This… is Nosgoth?" He said it with a tone that gave Kain the impression that if it was, it did not live up to his expectations. The vampire knew the feeling.

"Yes it is." He said with a weary resigned voice. Nosgoth's state slowly decayed more and more and so it would never live to the expectations held by rose tinted memories.

The Emissary's lips bent with his frown and dissatisfaction was clear in his eyes. He spat again, this time discharging bits of bone mixed with blood and saliva.

"Then I will travel with you a while longer then." He said, causing Kain to blink in momentary confusion. The Emissaries expression was stern and set as if he head made up his mind and would not be dissuaded.

"I have no need of a travelling companion or a guard at my back." The vampire said dismissively, making a cutting gesture with one hand.

"Aye." Ewoden remarked with a slight grin, looking around now noting all the bodies. "So it's a good thing I don't intend to be either one."

The emissaries face took on a more series expression and he appeared focused now, resigned but burdened. When he looked at Kain and saw the vampire's raised eyebrow, he added;

"My second oath has yet to be fulfilled and accompanying either you or your little blue friend might very well help me do it."

Kain remembered his first oath had been killing Ambraxas-Divus and eating his heart and that it had been only the first of three set tasks that he needed to perform and to his knowledge had been elaborated upon.

"And what prey tell is this second oath?" The vampire asked tilting his head to one side. Ewoden slowly drew in his breath.

"Simplicity itself." He said. "I have to find a home."


	23. 22 Raziel Nightmares of Children

With a loud crash of shattering stained glass, Raziel was thrown clear through the window. He thumbed head over heels before dropping down to the stone floor between the rows of pews, rolling until he struck his head against the alter at the far end of the chapel. His vision flashed white and then swam as if he were looking at everything from under water.

The blow had caught him almost entirely by surprise with its speed and impact power. He had not expected the creature, with its near skeletal frame, to be capable of hitting him that hard.

Shaking himself free from the stunned daze the impact had knocked him into, the blue wraith managed to get to his feet; fragments of coloured glass dropping to the ground.

Perhaps intervening had not been the wisest course of action. He supposed that in all logic he should have waited and observed the strange creature more before deciding whether or not to engage it. That way he could have determined its strength and powers.

But when he had seen it luring the children out into the night, some deep part of him had spurred him into action before his more rational side could override, perhaps a vestigial remnant of both his human and vampire existences that protected their young.

Through the shattered window about the main chapel door snow as flying, flakes settling down over the pews and seats.

Then the shape of that strange creature blocked the light, its long legs spaced wide apart in an almost spider like stance that avoided all the jagged glass still stuck in the window.

Its long elongated head was turned to regard Raziel firmly, staring at him through beady wicked eyes. In his left hand it held the pipe made of bone it had been using to bewitch the children, grasped deceptively casually but the blue wraith suspected it capable of bringing the instrument to its lips in a flash.

The 'piper', for Raziel could think of no other term for the being, leapt forward and did an acrobatic spin in mid air. It rebounded off the rafters above and landed with catlike silence on the stone floor.

"What sort of ghoul are you?" The blue wraith demanded, holding his arms out to either side with his talons spread in anticipation of a lunge.

The piper did not answer; indeed its mouth with its pulled back cheeks and lips seemed incapable of forming words. In fact Raziel wondered how it managed to use its instrument at all with such a mouth.

Instead it leaned backwards and its head tilted to one side and had an air of curiosity about itself and Raziel had the feeling that he was being studied.

The silence endured before perhaps several seconds and Raziel hesitated at the intense stare being directed at him. Without actually realising he was doing it, he took a step backwards.

That had been the hesitation the Piper had been waiting for. With surprising swiftness it shot forward, an arm shooting forward clenched in a fist.

It was instincts forced through centuries of combat that saved Raziel from the blow. The blue wraith leapt backwards out of the way, somersaulting up over the alter.

The piper came after him again, his other fist with the pipe still clenched in it flying at his ribcage. Raziel danced out of the way, kept on the defensive by the Pipers unanticipated speed.

Catching hold of one arm with his talons, Raziel draw his opponent in close and drove the talons on his other hand forward. But the piper caught his hand with his own free one, forced to drop its pipe to save itself from being impaled.

The two of them struggled, each of them trying to outdo the other in terms of physical strength.

It quickly became obvious that while the creature was faster then Raziel, it was not stronger. Slowly the blue wraith began to force it backwards until the back of its legs slide into the stone alter.

For a moment Raziel thought that he might be able to pin it down but then the piper turned his own strength against him and bend backwards, quickly slamming its own body back against the alter.

Raziel was thrown by the momentum back across the chapel, slamming into the ground and rolling a short distance; sinking his talons into the stone to slow himself down.

As the blue wraith got back up to his feet he quickly began re-evaluating his strategy. He preferred to strike first, rushing his enemies and hitting them hard and fast before they had a chance to retaliate, preferably dealing them mortal wounds if that was possible. With the quickness, agility and flexibility of the Piper that was not a viable option.

He would not be able to out manoeuvre his enemy.

After retrieving its instrument from the ground, the Piper leapt to the top of the alter. With a flourish it brought the bone pipe to its mouth and its head morphed, pushing down with a snap of bone to allow the lips to pucker around it.

Almost instantly came forth that haunting, luring melody Raziel had heard before; the song the creature had been using in its attempt to lead the human children astray.

The sound echoed inside the chapel, resonating up and out with the remaining stained glass windows rattling in response. Raziel swayed back, fighting the music's pulling urge. He did not think the melody could affect him as it did the human children but it was distracting enough.

Then movement caught Raziel's eye and he turned his head to see that out of various cracks in the walls all around him were coming rats, thick bodied vermin that swarmed out of their holes in larger and larger numbers all gathering towards the alter

The blue wraith had to move out of the way as they ran around his feet, high pitched squeaks mixing in a counter harmony to the piper's song to create an overall sound that was far more ominous.

**_ "The true scope of the creature's abilities were revealed. Its powers were not limited to the bewitchment of defenceless children but it could summon varied unwilling hosts to do battle on its behalf." _**

With its eyes still fixed on Raziel, the Piper's song reached a crescendo and the rats gathered around the rat turned as one to face the blue wraith as well; perhaps a hundred pairs of rodent eyes glaring at him savagely.

Then they attacked, running forward with multiple squeaking cries, some of them leaping to the pews to attack him from higher up.

The blue wraith kicked a few of them away but soon they swarmed around him, surging together and up his legs. The bit and clawed as they went scrabbling up as he struggled to get them off. While a rodent's bite was no significant injury in itself, dozens of small rodent bites all over his body were almost literally nibbling away at the energy required to hold the wraiths body together.

To free himself, Raziel cupped his hands together and unleashed a bolt of compressed telekinetic force. The powerful shockwave sent dazed rats flying in all directions, the rodent horde screeching in angered protest.

Leaping up to the top of a pew, Raziel kicked a rat still clinging to his foot away from him and began leaping from bench to bench ahead of the swarming rodents. The piper followed his every movement, fingers almost blurring on its bone instrument and the rats responded to each note.

Leaping at a stone pillar that ran up to the rafters, Raziel quickly sank his talons in and quickly scaled it hoping that the elevation would keep him safe from the rats.

But as he pulled himself up onto a rafter, an unwelcome squeak caught his attention and he saw that there were more small holes were yet more rats were coming; racing out onto the far rafters and making their way quickly towards him.

Raziel kept moving, leaping from rafter to rafter with his head half turned as he watched the rats pursue him. The rats down on the ground were running back to their holes on ground level, no doubt to move up through the walls to join their fellows above. This left the blue wraith with a brief moment of opportunity to act.

Still running he flourished his right hand and summoned the wraith blade, feeling the taxing pull the weapon had on his energy reserves.

Bringing his blade down he sliced through a rafter. The Reaver in its wraith blade form was not a physical weapon but rather a destructive form of energy. A slash to wood caused the building material to burst where contact was made, so fragments and splinters flew everywhere and the two larger pieces collapsed.

The Piper's song faltered sharply as the debris fell towards it and the being was forced to leap clear as it came down with a tremendous crash on the alter.

Raziel wasted no time, diving through the billowing cloud of dust and driving his wraith blade directly into the creature's chest.

The piper sagged forward but made no sound. Raziel capitalised on the injury he had made and dragged his hand to the side; burning through the creature's chest and leaving it tilted to one side.

With its torso sliced nearly in half, the piper fell forward as if all the strength had been cut from its body. The blue wraith kicked the body back so it fell with a loud thump to the ground.

The piper lay there after the impact, arms wide spread but still its grip on the bone pipe did not waver.

After a moment of silence, Raziel recalled the wraith blade and looked around. What rats were left were all hurriedly fleeing, running for the relative and dubious safety of their holes. Without the piper's song to compel them they would not stay not stay and fight.

The piper lay there motionless and Raziel craned forward to get a better look at the features of this strange, alien being.

"Raziel, behind you!" Ariel's voice screamed into his mind. Turning, Raziel managed to catch the descending stuff in his hand. Holding the other end was a human, a priest if Raziel judged by his white clothes. Just behind him stood too more humans, armed with staffs, none of the three warriors and elderly men.

They all had that same vacant and absent expression that the children had had when bewitched by the song of the Piper.

Remembering that creature and its powers Raziel turned his head to see the creature back on its feet. Its chest was still almost cleaved in half but it didn't bleed, as if its body were made of something other then flesh and blood.

Its bone pipe to its lips it was trilling out its siren song once more and the humans, now clearly its replacement puppets, responded by stabbing at Raziel with their staffs.

Raziel ducked under their lunged, rolling and blowing the first of them over. Grabbing the man he slammed him into the floor with enough strength to shatter his skull, the head bursting open into bloody fragments.

The second priest stabbed at him again with the staff in his hands attempting to strike him across the shoulders.

The blue wraith dived out of the way easily, spinning around and landing a kick to the man's jaw. The priest staggered back from the blow, clearly dazed despite the Piper's control over him. Raziel ran at him quickly, throwing his talons forward and puncturing his chest.

The man's soul came free from the body as the corpse slumped down and the blue wraith drew down his cowl, swallowing it whole; the action reflexive but supplying him with a boast of strength.

Spinning around he grasped the staff of the third priest and tackled him backwards, struggling with him for a moment.

Then the Piper itself entered the fray, attacking from the side. Raziel half turned and took the kick directly to the chest. The blow was sharp and strong, no amount of the beings strength being lost to its injury.

Raziel tumbled across the stone floor before he managed to right himself, dragging his talons to slow his momentum.

Its dark luring song continuing, the piper gestured with its elbow towards the blue wraith and the priest obeyed; charging Raziel with its staff at the ready to strike.

"So this is the extent of it is it?" The blue wraith asked contemptuously. "When children are not available as prey, you choose to puppet vermin and old men?"

He dived to the left as the priests staff came down to clash on the stone and as the old man turned, Raziel brought his legs sharply around and knocked his feet out from under him. As the priest toppled backwards, he grabbed a hold of the man's ankle and dragged him up. Using the momentum of the fall itself Raziel threw the man directly at his puppet master, the human tumbled across the floor once before slamming into the Piper.

The priest had broken his neck when he struck the floor but his body served its purpose, causing the Piper itself to stagger backwards now dangerously off balance.

Raziel rushed it, summoning the wraith blade again. When he engaged the creature this time he left nothing to change.

Grabbing the Piper's jacket in his left hand he drove the Reaver directly into the creatures head.

There was a blinding white flash along with a thunderous detonation, causing all the chapels windows to rattle.

The Piper's head exploded into pieces that flew off and struck the walls, its pipe also; splintering until breaking entirely down the middle.

The body stayed on its feet, swaying back and forth as if it were going to fall over at any moment. Raziel backed off, still holding the wraith blade at the ready in case the creature might survive even this.

Then, from out of the gaping hole of the neck, a new ethereal form seemed to burst forth like a snake from a tunnel.

.

**_"Before the creature's physical being was destroyed, I caught a glimpse of its true form; one I was quite familiar with."_**

.

The thrashing creature erupting forth from the wound in the Piper's body was an Archon. Raziel had seen them before and knew them all too well. They were hunters of the Spectral Realm, barely sentient incorporeal entities that stalked the lost souls of the underworld. Much like himself they were spirit devourers, taking some small part of the soul for themselves and sending the lion share of its energy back to the Elder to feed both him and his Wheel.

It wailed, its pincer arms thrashing wildly as if it was trying to claw its way out from the strange body in which it had been encased. In the physical world, Raziel could only behold its form as a faint outline and even that was growing less distinct.

Finally the Archon disappeared all together, perhaps returning to its native realm and when it did the Piper's body promptly collapsed into dust. Whatever force had been holding it together dissipated and it shifted to the floor, bellowing out in a small cloud.

Raziel stood there, the wraith blade still shimmering around his arm and breathing heavily.

This encounter had left him confused and more then a little disturbed. What strange techniques were their enemies playing now that the servants of the Elder sought corporal form this way?

And why had it, before he had interfered, been trying to steel away human children? Now he had more questions that needed answers then he was comfortable with.

Was this some ploy by the Divus? Or something far more insidious?

Suddenly there was a loud clanking of metal on metal accompanied by the sound of many running footsteps. Raziel spun and turned in alarm, seeing that running in through the now open doors of the chapel were dozens of heavily armed men. They were all clad in armour, breast plates and helmets polished marble white over thick chainmail painted red. They all had swords, some simple long blades others claymores and each of them clearly knew how to use it from the way they were being held.

Quickly they encircled him, swords pointed forward and forming a tight circle of blades to block off any means of escape.

"Hold there creature!" One of them said, his voice echoing metallically from within the helmet.

Raziel stood very still, looking around at the men and seeing the clear anger in their stances and manner.


	24. 23 Kain The Old man and the Mountain

The mountain was a flat toped plateau, rising eerily out of the surrounding peaks like a pillar of stone; its top engulfed in trailing snow clouds. Its rock and gravel insides were near jet black, frozen over with the cold and the mere sight of it conjured feelings of decay and rigid death.

His bats came together on a hilltop just before the base of the mountain; the flying rodents condensing and solidifying until they became the form of the vampire. Kain took a moment to ensure his form was reconstituted and then looked up with a grim frown at the rock peak.

The snow was still thigh deep but the blizzard had lessened so that only a gentle fall filled the air but not enough to obscure the view of the mountain.

.

**_"And so again I beheld the mountain stronghold of the Paladin, Malek. His bastion rose high like a sword point thrust up out of the belly of the earth, a dark shadow against the snowy twilight."_**

.****

He had not enjoyed his explorations of the mountain and the castle at the top. There had been no living humans inhabiting that fortress and so Kain had been starving for blood while he endured enemies had none to offer. Malek's stronghold had been a filled with a collection of ghosts, forced to relive their past encased in suits of armour.

.

**_"I have ventured here once before in my quest to hunt down and destroy the Circle of Nine. While Malek's bastion had not proven to be impenetrable, the Paladin himself had bested me and I had been forced into retreat." _**

.

His right arm raised, Kain held the Nexus stone out before him; its beacon pinpoint of light directing him onward and up towards the peak of the mountain. He had feared that this place was the destination the stone was directing him towards and he felt only morbidity resigned once that had been confirmed.

.

**_"The Nexus Stone was directing me to this forgotten peak with urgency. What secrets did this place hide that I had not unearthed on my first visit?" _**

.

There was a loud clatter of stones nearby and Kain turned as he folded his arms, looking sidelong across his shoulder at the large red furred wolf that lurked nearby. Ewoden had managed to keep up with him even while he travelled so quickly with his bats although he looked a little lathered; shaking his body to shift the snowflakes that were settling on him.

The emissary's ears were pricked forward, occasionally twitching as he listened for any noise that might give away the presence of hidden enemies. With Nosgoth under the current domination of the pseudo Sarafan, Kain was more then inclined to add a second set of senses to sniff out trouble.

"I smell men." The lycanthrope declared. While a vampire's sense of smell was far better then a humans it paled in comparison to the nose of a Lycanthrope. Kain decided that given how intractable Ewoden had so far been he could take his word for it.

"How many?" He asked.

The wolf sniffed some more, scratching at the thick snow with the claws on its front limbs.

"About two dozen, it's hard to say for sure." He replied and sat up on his haunches very much like an actual wolf. "I smell too much blood on them."

Kain pursed his lips. No doubt ahead there was a bandit camp, highway men using the mountain before then as a shield to protect them from the elements. Just to the south there was a major road where trade and commerce between east and west travelled, a prime site for pillage and plunder. Apparently the pseudo Sarafan's control was not yet firm enough to wipe out such parasites upon their empire.

The vampire was not impressed by such lax an attitude to banditry. As Emperor, he had ruled a domain devoid of it, the practise stamped out.

"Have they seen us?" He asked without looking around, eyes fixed on the mountain before him.

"I doubt it, too much snow in the air." Ewoden said with a low growl to his voice, the wind blowing its fur around his mane. Kain considered it for a moment and unfolded his arms.

"Raziel told me that Werewolves are like vampires in that they have a blood thirst." He said, recalling the brief explanation the wraith had given him as to the origin and nature of this strange breed.

Ewoden nodded.

"Aye." He confirmed and gave him a look down the length of his muzzle. "Although for us the meat, rather then the blood, is more nourishing."

While food was not required for a vampire's survival it did not hurt to eat regular food if it was desirable, which more often then not it wasn't. Kain had preferred to let his body adapt to a pure blood diet rather then dilute it with human food. The lycanthropes apparently retained an appetite for fresh meat.

The vampire nodded and a smile broached his lips.

"Then I suggest we stop for a meal." He said.

The bandit camp was set into a towering large crevice in the side of the mountain's almost vertical cliff, lined with defensive stakes around a make shift defensive log fort.

It was hidden from the main road by a rock outcrop so unsuspecting travellers might wander almost directly into the lap of the highwaymen before they realised their deadly peril.

The bandits were no doubt used to only lightly defended merchant caravans. When Kain had awakened in the twilight years of the Sarafan Lord, he had encountered similar bandits in the canyons outside Meridian's walls. They had taken their own preservation and secrecy much more seriously than these earlier bandits.

The battle with them, if it could really be called a battle, did not take very long at all. The bandits numbered roughly around thirty, slightly more then Ewoden's two dozen estimate but they did not make too much difference.

The Lycanthrope attacked first, leaping over the wall of their log fort and tearing into the flesh of a sentry. He screamed out once in horror and pain before his neck was crushed and the head fell free from his body.

Shouts of alarm came from within the cave and men with sword, bows and crossbows came out to retaliate. The emissary swept down into them, claws and teeth rendering their way through flesh with ease.

While the highwaymen were so focused on fighting with the lycanthrope, Kain chose that moment to attack as well. Jumping high up and over the log wall he came down behind a bandit trying to load a crossbow. Hearing the footsteps behind him, the man turned but Kain grabbed him from behind and slammed his talons directly into his back; piercing the leather armour he wore and stabbing directly into his lung.

Fangs pierced skin and Kain drank deeply, letting the blood flow to him from the dying human. Once he had drained the man dry he kicked the body forward.

Two men with sword turned to see him and instantly they rushed at him instead, running from the fight with the emissary to fight this new foe.

Their swings were clumsy and Kain parried them away with his bracer with some contempt. Snapping his arm forward he grabbed one of them around the throat, his talons puncturing his wind pipe with ease and the grip crushing bones.

He tossed the body aside and reached out with his other hand to telekinetically grab the other bandit, lifting the struggling man high into the air.

Throwing his arm forward Kain hurled the man through the air to smash him against the side of their own fortifications where he burst into pieces from the force of the impact.

The rest of the confrontation was short and messy, a brutal savage struggle with left bodies pooling blood everywhere in the encampment. Limbs lay everywhere, arms and legs scattered from the body with pieces of torn flesh hanging loose from the bone.

Kain himself had drained perhaps about six of them himself, giving him an intense surplus of energy. He felt fortified as ever he might be and the dull ache in his chest had subsided to a background hum.

Looking over he saw that Ewoden was still feeding, his wolf form savagely tearing off hunks of meat from a pile of carcasses piled toward him. He ate like an animal, tearing and slashing to swallow mixed chunks of flesh, bone and organs all rich with blood.

Kain watched the process with a kind of macabre fascination. He perceived that this gory gluttony was not a regular practise for a lycanthrope but rather Ewoden sensed that they might not find more sustenance for a while and was fortifying himself as well.

It would be a wise decision on their part. Up in the Bastion above, as Kain painfully recalled, there was no source of fresh blood to be found. The place was sterile, devoid of any life at all.

The vampire raised his arm and looked at the Nexus Stone attached to it, seeing it glow once more. Its beam of light was now pointed directly upwards towards the peak of the mountain itself.

"Since you seem to be busy eating I will go on ahead." He remarked. Ewoden did not pause in his meal, still too busy with the corpse upon which he was feasting using his claws to wrench open a rib cage to get at the tender organs.

The vampire paused to evaluate his companion's general physique and then judge it against the physical requirements needed for the climb. The near vertical cliff side was a challenge to scale with few foot or hand holds.

"You can scale the cliff without difficulty?" He asked, deciding to let the emissary judge for himself.

Ewoden chewed on something, spat out a fragment of bone and then turned his feral head to look up at the cliff above him.

"Of course." He growled and then went back to his meal. Kain managed a slight grin

"Then I will await you at the top." He said and closed his eyes, concentrating briefly before his body broke apart into a swarm of bats.

The flying rodents dispersed up into the air, flying high up away from the carnage below. The peak of the Bastion loomed high above, rising higher then the mountains around it.

The bats flew on, surging up through layers of cloud with snow falling all around them. After an exhausting climb they cleared the top and beheld from the air, the castle of Malek's Bastion.

The castle was built to the very sides of the peak, the walls high and black against the snow.

Flying around the castle, Kain saw through the eyes of his bats that the fortress had suffered some decay. Roof had collapsed in places and thick snow was piled up inside the walls, blocking many entrances he had used before.

The fortress still held to itself that bleak, uninviting quality he had observed eons ago. It was a place for dead things and where any form of life was the intruder. The bats circled several times before they descended into the castle's main central courtyard, their bodies merging together back into Kain's main form.

Once solid, the vampire surveyed the castle with his own eyes; recalling his struggle through this place to see to Malek himself and destroy him. That effort had ended in failure.

.

**_"In the era I which I was born the Bastion had been a relic, a throw back to the era of the Sarafan and the only remaining building of their order. From this stronghold Malek had stood watch over all the members of the Circle and brooded over the failure that cost him his flesh and left him entrapped in cold steel. Vorador would smile about that no doubt."_**

.

He glanced down at the Nexus Stone on his arm, seeing that the illumination within its polished central jewel begin to fade and disappear. He held his arm up to see it more distinctly but the light continued to fade, the jewel growing dark.

.

**_"The Nexus Stone's glow faded. Clearly I was at my intended destination." _**

.

Only the question still remained as to why.

Kain's memories of the Bastion were not too precise. When he had been here last he had been continually suffering from blood malnutrition to take much note of the castle's layout but what he did recall informed him that Malek had filled his fortress with spikes, traps and all other unpleasant means of repulsing uninvited guests. While perhaps, without some occupying force to maintain it, the Bastion had suffered some decay Kain was of no doubt traps like that would still remain and be a danger.

At the far end of the courtyard was an open doorway, leading into the castle's interior main hall. Kain made towards it and stepped inside out of the snow, although the flagstones under his feet were cold and slick with ice.

Lining the walls he saw that frozen there, standing still to attention to either side were suits of armour. Inside, frozen solid and blackened by ice and snow, were the corpses of the men Malek had abandoned to remain here as dead sentinels. They might very well have been the same dead bodies he had observed when he had been here before.

Kain did not linger to stare as there was an odd smell coming from deeper inside that caught his attention, familiar but it took him a moment to recognise the tang of smoke. Following the corridor and into the large main hall, Kain found its source, much to his surprise. Huddled in one corner there was a burning camp fire, crackling with pieces of wood and paper that kept it burning even in this cold.

There was a figure seated nearby on a piece of stone, covered by a thick black woollen cloak and was huddled in on itself against the chill so the vampire could not see its face.

Frowning Kain began towards the figure and as he neared, he was able to make it out for a human; old perhaps in his eighties if he was any judge.

The old man looked frail, his skin a crisscross of wrinkles and his beard the exact same shade of white as the snow. He huddled close to the fire, bent gnarled hands clutching tightly around his black robe fur robe to keep himself warm with its hood pulled up over his head.

His beard was long enough to reach his chest had an unkempt quality to it as if the old man had never once combed or cut it.

"Wasn't expecting company up here." He said without turning as Kain began to approach. The vampire hesitated once before setting himself and carrying on walking quite openly up to the fire and staring at the old human across from it.

The old man kept his eyes on the flames fir a moment and then turned his head to look up at Kain, his eyes tinged white with encouraging blindness. If he was not blind already he was clearly near sighted.

"But you're welcome none the less, vampire." Despite the old man's faded eyesight clearly he recognised Kain for what he was without much difficulty. What was even odder was that he did not seem bothered by it in the slightest.

.

**_ "The human was just like any other of age of his kind but watching him I felt an unease I could put into words." _**

.

If he wanted to Kain could have killed the only man with a single blow but the mere thought somehow left him feeling very so slightly queasy, as if he were afraid of the damage he might inadvertently cause the frail human. Why he should feel so he did not understand and it made him feel even less secure.

"Who are you old man and how did you come to be here?" The vampire asked bluntly, failing to keep some of his apprehension out of his voice. The old man paused to sniff and wipe his nose with the back of one hand.

"I climbed, vampire." He said without the slightest hint of any sarcasm. "Took me a while with my bad back but I managed it."

He said it so matter-of-factly Kain was almost tempted to believe it if he had not the example of the old mans frailty right before him.

"It's quiet and private up here." The old man was explaining while the vampire regarded him with a skeptical eye. "I've grown to like that in my old age."

Kain remembered briefly a strange similar encounter he had had once before, a long time ago, with a huddled old human stirring a pot who had not reacted with fear to Kain's presence. That strange homeless man had been quite mad and so Kain had passed off the lack of fear to his insanity. The old man here had no such excuse.

"As for whom I am, you can call me Ezekiel." He said with a smile causing his beard to pull up around his face. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."


	25. 24 Raziel Lion's Blood

Raziel could not see the expressions on the faces of the men that surrounded him as they all wore full steel helms upon their heads. But he didn't really need to. Their very stance and posture was dripping with hostility and the weapons in their hands seemed mere confirmation.

He took a wary step backwards but half turned remembering the others behind him. Enclosed on all sides he faced dozens of unfriendly swords and pikes.

.

**"Surrounded and outnumbered. Clearly these humans thought they had me trapped." **

.

For any other creature they would. But Raziel had no desire to waste time or energy doing battle with the local militia, especially after the gruelling struggle with the Piper creature. Instead of attempting to dodge them to evade their weapons the blue wraith simply relinquished his grip on his physical manifestation and let himself fade away.

The soldiers around him jumped back in alarm and then they disappeared as he shifted into the Spectral realm, the environment distorting with a loud audible groan.

With nothing baring his way anymore he simply strode out of the chapel leaving the humans behind to make what they would of his seeming ability to disappear.

He was sourly troubled by what he had seen when he had dealt that Piper the final blow. Emerging out of its collapsing corpse had been one of the Archons, spectral hunters enthralled by his former master. What had one of them been doing here and forced into such a hideous corporeal form?

There seemed to be no need for such an act or its new task in luring away human children. One soul was much the same as another to the Elder and he would not care about such things.

He also found it strange they human soldiers would choose to attack him rather then defend their children from the strange luring creature. Something strange was clearly going on here that needed some prompt investigation. With Kain now safe outside the boundaries of Fanum-Divus the blue wraith felt he had a little leeway to indulge himself in this mystery.

A small pack of three Sluagh rummaging around the alleyways of the city provided him with the restorative energy he needed to push himself back up to full strength. He didn't give them any time to even flee. He fell on them from above, flourishing the Reaver around in a sweeping arch. The wraith blade bit through their spectral flesh with a satisfying wail.

One by one the Sluagh became transparent as their defences were broken. Drawing down his cowl, Raziel devoured them all one after the other and they vanished; converted into his own strength.

After that the blue wraith was fortunate to locate a corpse for a conduit, stuffed down inside a sewer entrance. Probably the body of some homeless vagabond who had frozen to death in the cold and then been dumped into the sewers by the city watch. Hardly the cleanest vessel in the world but after it transmuted to his normal visage it served well enough.

Hiding out in the shadows of the cities extensive sewer and water drainage system, Raziel listened as the humans overhead were stirred into activity even this late at night. Hardly surprising that the people would be so riled with the visitation of both the Piper and himself to prompt them to it. Many people came out with candles, oil lamps or torches to form into a disorganised mob that combed the slush ridden streets and got into arguments with the patrolling soldiers.

Raziel watched them all from the shadows, judging their behaviour. The humans seemed agitated, fearful but not really very surprised. If anything they seemed to have been expecting trouble only not this bad.

Morning came all too slowly, a gradual brightening of the snowy gloom that made shadows soft and indistinct. The snow did not let up. If anything it seemed the drifting flakes became even thicker.

Many armed men wearing thick armour plating began to patrol the streets and Raziel noticed some differences. The men who had tried to corner him last night seemed to be militia of some sort for they wore the local Willendorf insignia proudly across their breastplates and shields. These were welcomed without warmth but not outright scorn.

The other types of soldiers seemed to make up the cities mass majority of armed men and the citizenry looked upon them with thinly veiled hostility that died away if they caught the soldier's eye. They wore grey armour that seemed more practical and utilitarian then that of the Willendorf guard. A prerequisite of this apparent occupying force was the universal shaved head. They even wore a face guard up to the top of the nose. It gave them a strange sort of mechanised appearance in their armour, as if only the top half of their head was flesh and the rest animated metal.

Across capes or loin clothes was a black Ankh symbol that Raziel had never seen before.

It took him a moment to place it in his mind from the various stories Kain had told him. This was the symbol of the second Sarafan Order that rose to power after the fall of the pillars and even came to dominate all of Nosgoth for a time.

With the mighty Willendorf past its prime and collapsing into the dust of history, a stronger power had occupied its territory. The wary relationship between these pseudo Sarafan and the Willendorf guard seemed to suggest that the realm's leader had surrendered without a fight and signed a capitulating armistice.

The Sarafan patrolled most of the city while leaving various districts to the militia, including the hall walled section that included the chapel where the fight with the Piper had taken place. In fact they seemed not to care at all about last night's disturbance and were perfectly happy to let their white armoured counterparts take care of the problem.

As he waited out the day, moving from the shadows of alleyways, sewers and rooftops; Raziel began to think about what he knew so far. If the reaction of these humans were any indication this was not the first time something like this had happened in their city. In fact such a thing might even occur quite often. It was his interference that had stirred this hornets' nest and that troubled him immensely.

Needing answers, the blue wraith returned to the chapel to watch it from the concealed position of a rooftop across the street. It was covered in snow and by now so was he so he wouldn't be seen.

The shattered stain glass windows had been boarded up and two Willendorf guards stood blocking the door, pikes at attention stance.

As he watched, several figures moved down the snowy street towards the door. Another two were guards but the third was a woman, the swaying gait made that clear even without the effeminate winter coat.

The two guards at the door bowed their heads to the lady and stood aside to let her pass through the door and into the chapel.

The air had been too thick with snow and having only seen her from behind, Raziel found himself growing interested. Clearly something was going on and some part of him felt that he needed to know what.

**_._**

**_ "My curiosity was peeked finally." _**

.

A short timed glide to the roof of the chapel when the guards weren't looking was easy enough and Raziel padded up the slanting roof to the bell tower. He could smash his way in through another window but he wasn't looking for a fight or inclined to provoke one. Entry through the bell tower was far safer.

Climbing in he found what he was looking for, the bell ropes descending down into the building. Gripping these he descended quickly and quietly, dropping down into the round back chamber where the bells were pulled and where the priests changed into their robes before each service.

A few more windows here had been smashed and then boarded up but it did little to keep out the winter chill. Shelves across one wall had collapsed, books scattered across the floor with their pages torn.

A side door lead back into the chapel just behind the alter and pushing it open slowly and silently, Raziel advanced inside with feather light steps.

It was unchanged from last night, albeit some of the rubble from the rafters had been cleared away. The bodies of the three priests that the piper had mind controlled were also gone although dark patches told of the blood stains were they had fallen.

Where the Piper had finally collapsed had been swept clean and marked with a symbol drawn in chalk on the floor, a pentagram supposedly used to contain or banish evil. A first Raziel thought it merely the product of fear driven superstition but noticed that the design was very complex.

Standing at the edge of the circle looking down at it was the woman he had seen enter the chapel. Now the he was closer up he could see her medium length chestnut hair and olive complexion under her red winter coat.

She was looking down at the circle just in front of her and seemed oblivious to all else around her; her small face torn with conflicting expressions of fear, anxiety, anger and most bizarrely, a strange sort of hunger. It was an esoteric sort of hunger, the kind of look Raziel had seen on Kain's face more than once; the hunger for another chance to roll the dice of fate.

The woman's apparent preoccupation proved to be little more than a facade. When Raziel approached the alter, even as slowly and quietly at he dared, her head came up sharply and she saw him.

The blue wraith froze and remained perfectly still, although he supposed after a sheepish moment that it was far too late to pretend he wasn't there now. His talons were out in plain view and they seemed to have gotten the woman's complete attention.

"Foul creature!" The accusation flew from her lips as she staggered back, hands reaching into her robes and coming out with a dagger in a split second. "You won't take me!"

Raziel tensed, seeing her on the verge of calling for the guards. He would have to rush her, take her and silence her before she could. He was fast enough for that.

Then the woman froze, her chocolate eyes widening even more as if in recognition. The shout that had been half formed on her lips seemed to catch and falter.

"No…wait." She said instead and her brow furrowed, the hand with the dagger dropping to her side. "You are not one of the Pipers."

The change in her demeanour left him feeling uncertain and all she displayed now to him was intense curiosity. Her lips remained pouted as if on the edge of a call for help. Raziel remained perfectly still so as not to provoke her into making that call.

The noblewoman leaned back, eyes narrowing.

"You are the creature the militia encountered last night." She mused audibly a faint new interest seeming to glimmer in her eyes. For her to know him at least peripherally then she had to have had a description of his appearance from the guards. If they answered to her then she would be in possession of useful information just as he had thought.

"You appear quite well informed." The blue wraith said, prompting her to be cooperative with a little preliminary flattery. His assessment of the woman's character proved quite apt. She took the compliment warmly even from one as unsavoury looking and unknown as himself.

"To stay alive I have to be." She said. "And to make the correct alliances."

Raziel blinked once in surprise and raised an eyebrow. The nobleman took this pause as an opening and carried on.

"I am Margravine Alicia Ottmar, princess and daughter of his highness King Ottmar the 5th." She said without the slightest hint of any grandiose tone for which she might have been pardoned.

"If you are the reported blue devil that stood up to a piper then I wish to conserve with you."


	26. 25 Kain Paladin's Secrets

**_"The old man was a simple peasant in manner and form but there was something about him, something I could neither see nor sense, that left me feeling precarious." _**

**_._**

Ezekiel smiled as if sensing Kain's consternation, which admittedly the vampire did not go to any great pains to keep from showing on his face. His old wrinkled face, illuminated by the light of his small camp fire was alight with some private amusement. But while the expression was jovial, Kain felt uneasy at it and there was something about his milky eyes that set his teeth on edge. Kain had seen many an old man over the centuries and one was much the same as another usually but this one was different; unique.

Ezekiel blinked and then half turned his head to look past the vampire back down the way he had come entering the ice ridden castle. Outside it was snowing heavily obscuring the view.

"Looks like your friend's on his way." He commented, stroking his beard with one almost skeletal hand. "Or at least I assume he's a friend of yours, given as how he smells of blood from so far off."

Kain looked back briefly over his shoulder and sniffed. He too could smell blood coming closer. Ewoden must have finished his meal of the bandits below by now and was ascending the cliff side to join him. It was a powerful stench indeed and Kain was not overly surprised that even a human had been able to smell it.

Instead he turned back and fixed Ezekiel with a hard stare.

"How do you know what I am, old man?" He asked, curious as to how some senile old human could have perceived his true nature with a single glance. Ezekiel levelled him a disappointed sort of look, glancing from his talons to the crest of horns around his hairline.

"It's not hard to guess." He concluded with a shrug. "And it bothers me not."

Kain's expression turned quizzical and the old man carried on.

"I've come up here to be alone when I die so harming me will get you nothing and cost me the same."

Kain looked around at their surroundings with clear disbelief on his face.

"You choose this frozen, lifeless ruin to be your grave?" He asked, voice tinged with appalled scepticism.

"The castle?" Ezekiel asked with a frown apparently and surprisingly sharing the sentiments. "It keeps the wind off me but it's not why I'm here." The old man bent to pat the ground between his feet. "I've always been fond of the mountains, but this one has always attracted me."

Then he raised his hand up above his head gesturing high. "The highest peak in Nosgoth I think, if a man stands on its top he's closer to god to any human can be." He smiled as if to himself. "And in my situation I think that's more than appropriate."

The vampire looked from the ground to the ceiling as if judging the difference between heaven and earth and let an amused chuckle escape past his lips.

"You're looking for god in the wrong place." He commented. Ezekiel seemed not to take offence by the remark and turned back to his fire and began prodding it back into life with a stick which had lain at his feet.

Kain stood there for a long moment simply staring at him before he sharply turned his head with a snort of disgust. He tore his mind away from the issue of the strange old man. What did it matter to him if some elder eccentric chose Malek's castle of all places to end his inconsequential life? He had other more pressing concerns.

Turning he strode out of the castle hall and back into the snow, letting it settle over him as he gazed out at the battlements surrounding the massive main courtyard. The thick snowfall made everything beyond a few feet in front of him the merest suggestion of a shadow.

Kain waited patiently until he caught a flicker of movement off to his left, a large shaggy shape rearing up over the edge of the castle wall.

The shape paused to shake off the snow like a dog and then dropped down onto the flagstones and began towards him. Its shape widened bit by bit as it came near and then condensed, shrinking down into a shape that was human in form.

As Kain's eyes made out Ewoden's shape he had indeed reverted back to his human visage although there was still blood splattered over his bare chest and jaw line. The emissary paused to clean his mouth with the back of his hand.

"You are satisfied now?" Kain asked with a raised eyebrow at such gluttony. Ewoden did not look repentant and only appeared mildly satisfied.

"I will not need to feed again for another month." He said and Kain didn't doubt it if he had consumed that much blood and fresh meat.

"You are more energy efficient then my kind then." The vampire commented. His own breed needed to feed once every couple of days at the very least and while Lycanthropes consumed more in a single sitting they could apparently go for longer without. This gave Ewoden an advantage in this landscape where fresh prey was scarce.

"This place smells of frozen death." The emissary said looking around at the place, nostrils flaring in distaste.

"I would more surprised if it did not." Kain replied following his gaze around to look at the black stone walls that hide the lethal interior of the castle that he remembered from view.

"What do you seek in this castle tomb?" At the question the vampire paused and looked down at his arm where the Nexus stone remained, gone dark now but a reminder of its role in leading him back to one of the less pleasant environments he had had the misfortune of exploring. Apparently whatever force swayed it was satisfied in simply getting him to this place. It was up to him to find out why.

"I am not sure." He admitted in a low tone. As if sensing or perceiving the strange circumstance that had drawn them near, the emissary snorted and half turned to look at the battlements again.

"Then I will patrol the mountain and locate any more intruders." He said. "Ensure we are undisturbed while we are here."

"There is an old man encamped down here in the hall." Kain said without looking up. Ewoden looked back over his shoulder.

"Is he dangerous?" He asked in a flat voice, the kind of tone reversed for one contemplating doing a distasteful but necessary task.

"One old man?" The vampire asked back with a frown, looking at the stone by holding up his arm. "No, leave him be." He managed a soft sneer. "If he causes trouble we can always kill him then."

Ewoden's face remained flat but he nodded once.

"Aye, so be it then."

With that he was gone back into the snow and Kain could hear the sound of his footsteps fading away.

The idea of spending any more time then absolutely necessary in this place was almost intolerable and so Kain thought it best to begin his investigations immediately. Grimly he re-entered the hall walking past the campfire where Ezekiel was still warming his tired old body by his first. Ignoring the old human he past him to a doorway on the far side and walked out into the castle proper.

As he walked down the black stone passageways the memories of this haunted, evil place came flooding back to him. Malek had built like bastion like a death trap, corridors and chambers filled with lethal mechanisms of spikes and curved metal blades designed to thwart any intruder to his domain. Many of these had rusted into immovability without their caretaker to keep them operational; although Kain did find one or two still functioning. But his previous experience with the traps allowed him to navigate his way around them.

.

**_"Malek the Paladin has been a formidable enemy during my fledgling travels, as cruel was he was relentless. For even though his spirit was agonisingly bound to animate a suit of armour, he condemned the souls of the Sarafan warriors who had followed him to the same fate, heedless of the pain he must have known it would cause them." _**

.

Scattered in the corridors he past here and there were pieces of old rumour, rusted brown almost completely to the floor. Finding one large pile of metallic debris scattered across his path the vampire bent to examine them. These Kain knew for it had been his own sword that had dispatched them. They were ghouls, mere shadows of the men they had been; like Malek bound to the armour they had worn in life.

Kain hoped that with the armour so damaged the soul had been freed from its bondage. If not then it was doomed to eternity trapped within rust.

.

**_"While Malek's soul had been bound by the necromantic skill of Mortanious, the paladin had used great alien machines to do the same to his men. I had deactivated the abominable devices during my first journey here but their origin and true nature had always remained a mystery to me."_**

.

In the next chamber he found one of these machines, dull and inert for a century now. The chamber itself was large with a huge stone vaulted ceiling and seemed only just large enough to hold the machine, indeed the contraption carried on beneath the floor descending down. It was an alien construction with many protruding extremities whose function he could not guess at. It was vaguely ring shaped with dusty, cracked green glass containers held around its outside edge.

When he had been here last the machine had almost seemed to scream with agony as it did its job of forging souls to inanimate objects. Now it was as silent as a corpse.

Kain stood looking at it for a long time before he frowned and looked off towards his right, towards a plain ordinary looking wall. It looked perfectly natural with no seems but something had drawn his attention.

The vampire approached and laid a palm against the dark stone.

.

**_"I could feel moving air coming through the cracks in this wall."_**

**_._**

For a moment he believed he might be mistaken but there it was again, the definite touch of slow but moving air. There as a cavity behind this wall.

Clenching his fist the vampire drew his arm back and then slammed it forward, reinforcing the blow with a telekinetic bolt that struck the wall as his hand. The wall fractured and then burst inward, fragments of dark brick scattering down a long flight of curved stairs leading down into darkness.

Kain scowled for his own inattentiveness. Had he not been so focused in this attempt to assassinate Malek when he had been here before he might have perceived these hidden entrances.

A click of his talons summoned the soft illumination of magical light and Kain descended down the stairs, feeling them grow colder with every step. Dust lined the walls and the vampire had the immediate sense that this section had not been opened for a very long time.

As he descended, he saw that after he past a certain point the architecture of the stairs abruptly changed. From one step to the next he past from dark stone to slippery metal and for an awkward moment he almost lost his footing.

The stairs then widened out and the vampire found himself looking into another chamber which seemed to be directly below the first. The alien machine fed down through the ceiling and into the floor again.

.

**_"This place differed much from the architectural design of the rest of Malek's keep and the tunnel showed evidence of being deliberately blocked off. What had the Paladin desired to hide so much inside his own stronghold?"_**

**_._**

Kain clenched his fist tighter and the orb of magical light that was glowing at his command widened and grew, casting longer shadows over this secondary room. A few doorways lead off into other rooms but the walls between each archway were covered in pictographs all drawn with dark straight lines like blotches of spilled ink. As he gazed around the chamber he saw something that awoke in him a memory, recalling a place he had all but forgotten.

.

**_"I recognised the chamber's architecture from other ruins, such as the Forgotten Fort Vorador had showed me when we had come to find the Seer. This was a Hylden Room and the murals upon the walls were typical of their artistry."_**

.

He had seen this style of mural in the forgotten forts temple complex, Hylden artistry with their unique distinctive style of black lines. Kain approached the walls to look more closely at them. He had long put stock in the recorded histories laid out in mural form by the ancient races.

Depicted seemingly in full proportions was the image of a Hylden, or at least it seemed to be Hylden. The depicted being was unlike the emaciated skeletons they had become.

.

**_"The figure before me was unlike any of their kind I had seen before, portrayed with nobility and calm, a regal figure of authority that resonated with wisdom. I wondered whether this was an accurate likeness or merely the work of an artist prostituting his ethics to produce something pleasing to the model."_**

.

He almost seemed human with his nose, eyes and mouth but with a sweeping crest leading back from the top of the skull and framing the sides of the face. He stood up tall and his posture expressed admirable pride and resolve. Unusually for a Hylden he seemed to be wearing armour in the form of a large breastplate across his chest; styled and engraved to resemble a pair of goat horns curving up to either shoulder. One arm was raised up to chest height and his palm was open and standing in that palm was a round orb of some kind and he was looking at that jewel with a determined but sad expression.

Kain pondered at the image for a long moment before shaking his head and turning away to explore the rest of the chamber. Each side door did indeed lead off into another room, full of more of the alien machinery Malek must have made use of. They seemed to be supporting mechanisms for the largest one in the central room and the murals on the walls showed the machines being operated by Hylden engineers. He supposed it was supposed to be viewed as some kind of instruction but their precise order eluded him.

The presence of Hylden in these pictures however immediately roused his suspicions and he began to form a theory in his mind.

His hypothesis was drastically confirmed when he entered the furthest chamber and saw the massive picture that ran up the curved wall towards the ceiling.

.

**_"This second mural was of greater interest then a nobleman Hylden's portrait, for it seemed to show the Bastion as having far greater significance then I had previously believed."_**

.

Its lower half seemed to show a map and the landmass Kain recognised instantly as the coastline of Nosgoth, although there had been some changes in the depicted geography since the diagram had been drawn. Various locations on the map were marked with symbols that the vampire could not read. Some places he could identify, such as the forgotten fort in the ancient canyons, the location of the Device beneath the city of Meridian and even the Hylden city on an archipelago of islands off the coast.

Another location which drew his attention was this very mountain, its symbol engraved with darker colour. Lines from this symbol lanced up to the picture above the map, which to the vampire's eye seemed to depict the mountain itself but cut away showing an elaborate labyrinthine interior.

.

**_"So Malek was not just a sadist but a thief as well, building his Bastion atop a Hylden Stronghold and then stealing their technology to bind his warrior's souls? The Nexus Stone was a Hylden artefact; it had led me here to discover the hidden secrets Malek had tried to bury."_**

.

Kain stared at the picture, looking at the mountain and wondering if this image was indeed correct and the castle interior merely a human construction atop a larger complex with secrets awaiting discovery.

**_._**

**_"But the question still remained; 'why?'"_**


	27. 26 Raziel Payment

The woman seemed to be getting used to his appearance and presence although Raziel did not fail to notice that she remained quite tense, ready to run or call for help at the slightest hint of aggression from him. At least she was prudent.

"Perhaps you find it odd that I'm willing to speak with a Ghoul?" She asked with a nervous sort of tone and twist to her lips. The ghoul in question spread his arms slowly in a short bow, almost mockingly.

"The thought had crossed my mind." He admitted. The woman, who called herself Princess Alicia Ottmar, seemed momentarily taken aback by being addressed so courtly. Perhaps it had not occurred to her that he might respond, if at all, with the crudest sort of speech imaginable. It had always been man's failing it seemed, to believe that no other species was capable of the same kind of manners they seemed to think they invented.

"Believe me, under ordinary circumstances I wouldn't..." She said, shuffling a little to keep her fur coat up high around her shoulders as if to protect her vulnerable neck with it. "But to be blunt, I require aid."

Raziel arched an eyebrow and gave her a penetrating look. What she seemed to be suggesting was ludicrous.

"And you're asking me?" He asked in a factious tone. Alicia nodded.

"The militia say that the blue devil killed a Piper." She replied. "If that is you then you are the ... unexpected... answer to my prayers."

Raziel cocked his head with a confused expression.

"Piper?" He asked. The princess cast a glance to the spot where the evening before the creature Raziel had battled had been slain and then back at him, a quick gesture but enough to let Raziel make the connection. It had been a strange creature he had struggled with the night before, like none he had ever seen before. More unsettling then that however had been the brief and disturbing appearance of the Archon spectral entity from its fallen corpse.

"They are beings that the people of Willendorf have feared for centuries." She said and there was a genuine tinge of fear in her voice. "They, more than anything else, are responsible for the decline of the realm."

The blue wraith stiffened a little and narrowed his eyes.

"They?" He asked with his voice growing harsh enough to make the princess seem even more apprehensive. "Plural as in more than one?"

Alicia took a moment to gather her courage again. For a normal human she was showing an admirable deal of fortitude, this alone spoke of her desperation for aid no matter what the source.

"They come with the chill of winter." She began in a low cold tone. "Sometimes travellers see them in the forests when the new snow flies, waiting for the deepest cold to carry them in." She shuddered a little. "Then they come to take our children away into the darkness."

The blue wraith remembered what the creature had been doing before he had decided to interfere. Playing upon its bone pipe it had used its strange music to place many human children of Willendorf under a siren spell, luring them from their homes and out into the cold night.

"Truth or fairy tale?" He asked the princess in a sidelong fashion. She looked back at him with an even graver expression then before.

"What do you think?" She asked back. Raziel paused and looked over to where the Piper had fallen again, remembering the battle and how much of a close thing it had been. The piper had been a match for even his enhanced strength and reflexes.

"I am more concerned with the reality then the superstition." He said. "They are more then you could possibly know."

The princess tossed her head back and spread her hands apart in a cutting, dismissive gesture.

"I don't know or, to be honest, care what they are." Alicia said. "All that concerns me is what they do."

Raziel sighed; he knew where this was going.

"And I suppose you would like me to rid you of them." He asked in a tired and resigned sort of voice. The princess paused again and took a quick glance back over her shoulder. From the door of the chapel there was the sound of people, the life of the ordinary citizens of Willendorf continuing while they talked.

"This place is too public." She concluded, unnecessarily dropping into a whisper. "Someone could walk in at any moment."

Clearly public appearance meant more to humans then it had to the ruling class of Kain's empire. As a clan leader he had had privileged enough status to speak to whomever or whatever he wanted in public without consequence. If anyone, human or vampire, dared to second guess his choice of conversationalists they would be dead within the hour.

"Come to my chambers in the castle at midnight tonight and we can speak freely there. I will leave a candle in the window to mark it." Even though she said this the greatest hint of reluctance and distaste in her voice, Raziel found himself momentarily taken aback by the suggestion. A human, offering to take him into their home?

This girl was more desperate for allies then he had originally thought.

"Why would I do this?" He asked to cover his confusion. "Simply to indulge you?" A callous show of vampiric indifference to human affairs usually worked to curb enthusiasms. Only the princess Alicia Ottmar proved to be a tad more shrewd then average. She gestured all around her.

"You came back to the scene of the battle." She said with a nervous smile. "That says to me you are curious."

.

**_"Undeniably true only not for the reasons she might think." _**

**_._**

Raziel considered her offer with a frown creasing his forehead. He was more than aware that in all likelihood this might be a trap, that the creature sent to fight him merely to give him incentive to be lured deeper inside. Some part of his mind told him that he should quit this city and venture out to find Kain again or go to the Chronoplast and leave this era altogether.

Pursuing the tentacles of his former master was no duty of his.

Or was it? The presence of an Archon, even one bound in such an absurd physical form, was a great cause for concern. If it were a duty for him to investivate it was a self imposed duty and one had he had not been aware he had even made.

"You would not be wise to trust her, Raziel." Ariel said, whispering to him silently inside his own mind. An obvious enough statement hardly, requiring the wisdom of a past Balance Guardianship but still a wise piece of advice.

"I need information and if she is willing to give me it I will indulge her long enough to hear her out." He replied to her with a though, voicing his own reasoning. There could be no harm in having a conversation in a more private location and if it did turn out to be a trap, he was confident of his ability to either fight or flee.

"Whatever you have to say ought to be informative in order to make it worth my time." He told the princess.

Alicia did not appear overly surprised by his reply, if anything she seemed to be relieved if only to quite his disturbing company for a time. She pulled up the hood of her cloak over her head covering her hair.

"Then I will see you tonight, ghoul." She said.

That 'ghoul' was beginning to wear a little thin.

"My name is Raziel." He corrected her and was gone from the chapel before she had even reached the door.

.

**_"This was a calculated risk. I had no proof that this scion of the Ottmar line was sincere and more than enough reason to suspect that this might be a trap. But I needed to understand the full extent of the influence these Piper's had on this realm and where they were coming from. I would just have to be careful." _**

**_._**

Prudent caution however was definitely something to adhere by. For a long time Raziel studied the castle of Willendorf city, a fortress set upon the rise of an island in the middle of the lake and connected to the common folks dwellings by a massive bridge. Carved into the buttresses of the castle and across the gateways was the proud emblem of their lion sigils.

But even these marks of past glory were hidden away, obscured by flapping banners of the new age Sarafan and their own Ankh symbol. This seemed deliberate, as if the occupying force wanted to leave the citizens of Willendorf under no illusions as to who was in charge.

As the sun moved across the sky, the day progressing, Raziel watched the castle from across the water.

.

**_"Here before me, the castle of the Lion King of Willendorf, was a faded remnant of a bygone age. The stones themselves seemed to drip with the memory of strength and glory. But with the fluttering Sarafan banners of the occupation atop the walls, the castle seemed to be bleeding its memories away into passing time." _**

**_._**

Willendorf was in the last days of its own existence, the glory of its reign something to be hidden away behind the marks of the new rising power without objection. Raziel could see this cities death even now, houses abandoned and left to be reclaimed by nature on the outskirts, the busy lived in part of town was run down and filled with waste and even the castle seemed to be crumbling from neglect. If he was any judge he supposed the city had another fifty years of slowly dwindling life left in it before it faded completely.

It was sad to see a once so mighty a capital die, not by the sack of an invading army, but through the decedent decay of men with no hope.

It seemed to be the common mode for mighty empires. They never died in sudden fits of blazing glory. They might have been built by exceptional men with grand visions, but those visions did not last beyond a generation and the reins of power were passed to increasingly petty men only concerned with furthering either their own ends or the ends of their social class.

Kain's empire had lasted far longer than any dominion before it but even it had eventually decayed, even with immortal leaders to direct it. The enemy of a system built in glory seemed to be the march of time.

Raziel was so caught up in his philosophical musings that he almost didn't see the single candle set into the window of a high room in the castle. He sat there staring at it for perhaps a whole minute before he blinked and stood up.

Seems the princess was being sincere in her desire to talk to him again, although Raziel approached the castle with a great deal of caution.

He saw nothing out of the ordinary as he swam across the lake from the south towards the island, diving down to avoid being spotted by the archers on the battlements. There were soldiers patrolling the castle battlements and courtyards, but they did not appear to be doing anything besides that nor did there seem to be any more of them then necessary.

Still as Raziel began to scale the outside of the castle walls, sinking his talons into the stone, his sense of something being wrong grew stronger and stronger.

The sun had dipped down low over the edge of the horizon but the stars were winking out, obscured by thick grey clouds coming in from the east. The air carried a faint dusty smell that told of more snow on the way.

He was perhaps about ten feet away from the window when from within, there broke a powerful loud scream.****

**_._**

**_"My hopes for a quiet interview were shattered as a woman's high pitched screech broke the calm of the night."_**

**_._**

Raziel tensed for only a moment and then sprang upward, catching the rim of the windows ledge and hauling himself up onto it with a massive effort. The window baring his way and the candle just beyond it was blown out by a quick telekinetic bolt, sending glass and bits of hot wax cascading into the room.

Inside the room, Alicia Ottmar was pinned up against the side of the wall with terror written and almost engraved into her very face. Looming over her, tall and thin was...

Raziel stared, uncomprehendingly at the creature he had killed last night, restored to life and apparent good health before his eyes.

Slowly, the Piper turned its elongated and twisted head to look back at him over its shoulder. Then he saw his mistake. It was not the same one, very similar to the first but this one had a different number of bony spikes jutting out from either side of its skull and it had a missing tooth.

The pipe made of bone in its hand was longer than the previous one, jagged at one end where the bone had been snapped.

Then, surprisingly, the creature spoke.

"The being that destroyed one of my kin." It said in a gurgling voice due to its lips being pulled back by the skin around its head. The accusation was more of a question. "This is not your affair, leave and you will not be singled out for retribution."

Raziel stepped down from the windowsill and the second piper turned to face him. The blue wraith flexed his right arm, flourishing it to one side. With a screech the wraith blade manifested filling the small chamber with its otherworldly glow.


	28. 27 Kain Lower Dwellings

(Note: I am on the lookout for someone to be a long term BETA reader for me. Perks include 'reading the next chapters before anyone else'. If interested, send me a message on FF.)

The old man's fire still burned brightly when Kain returned to the central hall, fed fresh bits of wood and twig every now and then from the old man's own hand. Exactly where he was getting this fuel from was of momentary interest to Kain as there were few if any trees on this high plateau, all rock ice and snow.

Ezekiel didn't even look up as Kain approached; prodding the embers of his fire with a stick to keep it burning. The warmth was pleasant against the cold and if the old man kept a place warm for them while they where there he was doing something useful.

In human form, Ewoden was crouched by the fire and far closer trying to keep warm with a lack of garments. He had a woollen cloak wrapped around him, perhaps given our of the old man's packs and he had his hands out towards the flames. The emissary looked up at the vampire when he drew near and gave him a sharp nod, indicating that he had encountered something worth speaking about during his patrol but nothing so urgent that he needed to speak of it immediately.

Kain nodded back in grim satisfaction, interrupting it as meaning they were alone on the mountain and not likely to be disturbed. The Bastion had hidden secrets he would need time to uncover.

The old man was the first of them to break the silence.

"Your friend here tells me you came by Coorhagen." He said, gesturing briefly at Ewoden before poking at the fire again. "How is the old hamlet these days?"

Kain glanced from the lycanthrope to the old man and back.

"It's seen better times." He replied, sitting down on a rock and rubbing his hands together to put some warmth back into them. Vampires could tolerate more extremes of temperature then humans but they were not impervious to the elements.

Ezekiel chucked and rolled his shoulders, bone creaking audibly, to resettle his cloak.

"Hasn't it just?" He asked rhetorically. "Used to down live there myself." He added, but with a certain amount of distaste. "Not out of any desire to but because I was needed."

Kain looked up at him sharply and narrowed his eyes. He was no fool and had spent enough time dealing with Moebius' clever wordplay that he knew something was being held back.

"For what purpose?" He asked intently.

The old man ran his fingers through his beard, pulling out a snarled tangle of hair and gave him a soft yet pained smile.

"Duty, Vampire." He said and he sounded tired. "I suspect even your kind know about that."

Kain briefly wondered if perhaps he was being obscurely mocked. It was difficult to know how to address the old man, neither a servant nor a hindrance nor a spy nor an enemy. Ezekiel seemed to be something else entirely, something new... and anything new put Kain ever so slightly on edge.

"If I might cut in..." Ewoden said, looking at the once vampire emperor rather pointedly, clearly unwilling to wait any longer. Kain turned to look at him directly. "I have come across something I think you ought to see."

Very willing to distract himself from his present trail of thought, Kain frowned at the Lycanthrope and his mouth parted at one side.

"What?" He asked.

Ewoden paused to consider and then shook his head with a disgruntled expression.

"Hard to explain, I've not seen its like before." He said and stood up, keeping the wool cloak tight to him. "I'll just show you."

Kain nodded in agreement and the emissary led him out of the main hall and into the snowy courtyard. The snowfall has lessened by only a little, allowing small pinpricks of starlight to chin through the clouds. Ezekiel said nothing to them as they left, continuing to poke and prod at his fire in a disinterested sort of manner but Kain felt the old man's eyes on him as they left.

The cold wind howled overhead, a high pitched screeching noise with a echo to it that seemed to linger a little too long amongst the ruins of the Bastion.

Ewoden stopped and cocked his head to one side, listening.

"Danger?" Kain asked him. The emissary did not immediately reply but pressed his lips together.

"No." He finally concluded and shuddered. "But this place... it seems to carry memories embedded in the very air around it, dark memories of horrible deeds."

Kain snorted.

"I'd be more surprised if it didn't." He said as they carried on. "This castle was built as a monument to pain."

They passed through a jagged archway of blackened stone and into a corridor that lead deeper into the castle complex. The floor and walls were coated with patched of thick ice and icicles hung along the crevices, thick and wet with fresh snow blown in by the wind.

"By who?" Ewoden asked, his voice echoing down the corridor.

"His name was Malek." Kain replied, hearing his own voice echo. "The Sarafan Paladin, leader of their holy order and sentinel of the Circle of Nine."

"Grand titles." The lycanthrope said, glancing past him down the corridor to where the rusted remains of one of the Paladin's booby traps lay in wait, plain for them to see with many spikes and curved blades now frozen with brown ice.

"He was also the Guardian of the Pillar of Conflict." Kain added and Ewoden looked at him sharply, eyes wide.

"He was human?"

"Essentially." Kain replied.

"Then Moebius was telling the truth." He mused. "Cursed and unable to bare live children, rights of Guardianship passed from Vampires to humans."

Kain's expression turned flat and unfriendly. He had heard an abridged version of the emissary's history briefly from Raziel, although mention had been cut that Moebius had been involved; knowing Raziel probably to save time.

"I suppose he thought it of paramount importance." He queried. Ewoden nodded, leading the way in through a larger doorway into a wider corridor.

"He came to preach of nearly nothing else." He replied and then affected a puffed up, self important ranting sort of tone. "The age of men dawns for we are chosen by fate to rise up to providence!" He said, imitating a speech made perhaps eons ago.

Kain chuckled at the mockery.

"Ages come and ages go." He said. "One rises and another falls. Foolish is the one who thinks his age lasts forever."

His words proved to have deeper meaning then he intended as Ewoden came up to a set of shut double doors at the end of the wide corridor. The vampire had a momentary sense of powerful déjà vu that became certainty when the doors were pushed open. He had been here before, in a bygone age that had fallen away.

.

**_"Malek's throne room, a fairly useless chamber for he could not use the throne himself. Reclining upon it still, frozen and preserved was the corpse the Paladin had claimed as his own." _**

**_._**

The corpse, covered even thicker in ice then before, hardly resembled a human being anymore. Even frozen so in this cold ice it was slowly rotting away. All that remained of the Paladin's body was a pale white skeleton with ice and snow for muscle and skin. This body and perhaps a few scraps of torn armour that might still exist in the tower of Dark Eden were the only physical remains of the last Guardian of Conflict.

Ewoden walked right up to the throne.

"I have seen the body before." Kain remarked, wondering if Ewoden had taken him all this way for a corpse. The lycanthrope shook his head.

"No, not that." He replied and stepped to one side of the metallic seat, gesturing for Kain to follow him. "Here."

Kain lifted an eyebrow quizzically but followed. He had noticed nothing special about this room when he had pursued the Paladin during his fledgling quests and at first glance, nothing about seemed different now.

Ewoden stepped aside to let him get close but pointed with a finger at the spot he was indicating. The throne was backed up against the far wall of the chamber but there was space enough for the vampire to see in between. There was an indentation in the wall, although too dark for them to make out exactly what.

More importantly however as Kain moved his hand in between the throne and the wall, he could feel moving air travel over his skin.

There was another hidden passage here, hidden by the throne of the Paladin itself. Kain turned to look at the lycanthrope emissary.

"I found it when I came in here to check for more squatters like that old man." Ewoden explained at the vampire's look.

"I could smell the air coming through."

Kain nodded and quickly set his talons against the side of the throne. He did not want to use his telekinesis to move the obstacle and risk damaging the entrance, so instead he set himself to the metal throne and pushed.

Slowly the chair and its corpse moved aside, groaning and creaking in violent protest with every step. The ice holding the corpse in place began to creak and crack in places as the throne moved and then with a final shove, Kain pushed it completely out of the way.

In the space where the throne had been, there was a door. There was no other word then a door for it was rectangular with a clear divide down the middle. Engraved into its surface was a pictogram depicting a creature that could only be a Hylden, with that sweeping crest on the skull. This specific Hylden was familiar however for it was the same Hylden Kain had seen before in that other hidden chamber.

.

**_"Again here was another image of the Hylden nobleman, in the exact same position as before only the orb he had once held had gone astray. This was more than chance."_**

**_._**

In the other image, this nobleman Hylden had been holding some orb of importance. In this image that orb was missing an in its place was a deep indentation shaped like an egg.

Kain and Ewoden stared at the picture, before they both as one turned their heads to look down at the Nexus Stone attached to the armour on Kain's arm.

Kain met the lycanthropes eyes, it was clear they were both thinking the same thing. The Nexus Stone disconnected from Kain's arm with a soft click and the vampire held it in front of him, his eyes flickering back and forth between the stone and the slot in the wall.

Nodding once in decision he lifted the artefact and pressed it to the crevice.

.

**_"The Nexus Stone fitted so perfectly into the slot that it could only have been deliberately intended." _**

**_._**

As the artefact sit inside, the wall itself seemed to emit a loud click, followed by three increasingly loud clunking noises. The third one resonated ominously throughout the entire chamber and Ewoden took an involuntary step backwards in alarm. Small clouds of dust began to float up into the air, disturbed from cracks in the barrier where they had previous rested undisturbed. Hidden gears and machinery that had lain dormant for a long time without use churned into life, groaning like an old man rising from his bed.

The image on the door suddenly seemed to move, the head of the nobleman Hylden twisting up to look Kain full in the face. The image was not a relief cast but a statue, set into the hidden doorway itself.

The vampire stared back into that face without blinking, ready to any sort of surprise attack to be thrown at him. But the statuette, with a loud groaning of stone on stone, swung its head to the left and the door moved with it.

The grind of stone set the vampires teeth on edge but eventually the door was fully open, leaving the Nexus Stone set to one side still in the hole Kain had inserted it into.

As the dust resettled Kain looked into the passageway now revealed to him, shaped with metal walls unlike those of the bastion around him.

So Malek guarded the secret of his bastion with his own throne, for this passageway seemed to go down a very long way; perhaps to go deep into the mountainside upon which the fortress stood.

And what to make of the stone now, which had clearly been the key needed to open this door. Kain had seen enough in this place to confirm his already firm suspicion that the Nexus Stone was of Hylden origin and make, perhaps even created here.

"Is this what you came here to find?" Ewoden asked somewhat sceptically.

Kain stared on down the passageway for a long moment before turned and removing the Nexus Stone from the slot in the door. The mechanism seemed satisfied with its already being open and did not immediately swing the door back in front of the passageway entrance.

"Apparently it is." Kain said but with a dubious tone in his own voice. The Nexus Stone itself had led him hear with not the clear intention of directing him to uncover these lost secrets, but stones are inanimate objects and do nothing by themselves. There was some guiding force behind, in or through the stone that was at work here.

He could not guess at this force's motive for guiding him here but his intuition told him not to trust it, to seek out its intent and expose it before it came to fruition. He would not wander this fortress unlocked secrets blindly, waiting to fall into some trap built by some would be successor to Moebius.

He started towards the now open doorway.

"I will watch your back." The lycanthrope remarked, stopping him momentarily. "I do not like this." Kain managed a whimsical sort of smile in response.

.

**_"And thus I was granted access to the hidden fortress, a realm of Hylden science hidden and jealously guarded by the Paladin's grim fort. I had come where the Nexus Stone had directed me and for better or worse, I could undercover its secrets." _**


	29. 28 Raziel The Lost Sword

(Note: I am on the lookout for someone to be a long term BETA reader for me. Perks include 'reading the next chapters before anyone else'. If interested, send me a message on FF.)

The old man's fire still burned brightly when Kain returned to the central hall, fed fresh bits of wood and twig every now and then from the old man's own hand. Exactly where he was

Knowing full well what one of their sickening wrapped kind was capable of if given the time to do so Raziel pressed his attack immediately and swiftly. He darted in, holding his body low to the ground. To his right, the wraith blade hummed loudly increasing in pitch as if in anticipation of a meal.

Perhaps the first piper's experience transferred to the second through some inexplicable away, for the creature immediately backed off; swinging out of the way so that the tip of the wraith blade past an inch from its nose when Raziel swung it.

It knew to fear the Reaver.

Raziel pressed in, swinging the blade up and around directly at the Piper's head. It ducked under the attack and lashed out, a kick catching the wraith in the mid section. The blow was enough to send the blue wraith hurtling back across the room to crash into a tapestry hanging on one side of the room.

The piper wasted no time, darting in close and landing a punch across Raziel's face that felt as if he'd been struck with a block of granite. Thrown off to one side, spinning around in midair Raziel saw the princess go for the relatively safety of the door.

To cover her retreat, he rebounded off the side of the wall and propelled his body far quicker then the piper was expecting back at the creature. He still had the advantage of superior speed and used into sink the talons of his left hand deep into the creature's chest.

They punctured with a snapping sound like breaking twigs and tearing parchment, the Piper's clothes tearing away around the impaling claws.

Arching his body, still in mid air, he brought his right hand down the Reaver blade flourishing and bursting forth filling the room with its luminous glow.

The Piper raised a hand to ward off the blow and the blue wraith promptly severed its arm. The limb arched high into the air and then fell to the floor with a loud thump. It bounced up and down on an erratic spasm there for a moment before it shrivelled and became a mummified discarded appendage.

Raziel tried to bring the Reaver across to severe the head next but the Piper pre-emptively cut him off, head butting him in the skull and forcing him to back off. The blow left the blue wraith open to an attack, taking the form of another of its kicks. The creature's entire strength was focused into that blow and it sent Raziel flying. He crashed into the door and it buckled outwards, fragments of wood and reinforcing steel sent flying in all directions. Raziel spun several times before landing in a tangled heap in the remains of a canopy bed.

Torn fragments of clothe and wood fell over him even as he tried to rise. He had been knocked into an adjourning apartment, larger than the first room with many pieces of fine furniture and wall tapestries. Clearly the room they had just fought in had been an antechamber of some kind.

The princess was in one corner off the room, facing them with a terrified expression across her face, eyes fixed not on him but the piper as it advanced into the room. With the loss of its arm, its bone pipe had been rendered useless. The piper discarded the instrument as it advanced toward the blue wraith.

Raziel scrambled back to his feet and leapt out of the way as the creature dived at him, pouncing like a cat to one side.

The piper followed him, reaching out with one hand to try and grasp his foot. Raziel spun about in mid turn and fired a bolt of condensed force at point blank range into the creature's face. The impact shook the windows and the piper staggered backwards, stunned.

Rolling away, Raziel backed off to the wall of the apartment and grasped the metallic pike from the standing form of suit of armour.

The blade of the weapon caught the Piper across the chest, sending the creature backwards.

Raziel didn't stop there, arching his body around in a tight caught and smashing its shaft into the Piper's side and then again and again, knocking the demonic thing around leaving it not time to retaliate.

Finally he darted closeand kicked it squally in the stomach. It staggered back several steps to the far side of the room. Hefting the weapon Raziel threw it directly at his opponent. There was a loud crunch as the spear stabbed into the Piper's head and burst out the far side.

It staggered there, the weapon struck through its skull. Raziel however knew better then to assume he had mortally wounded the creature.

With a flick of his wrist, he summoned the wraith blade again and raced in, bringing his ethereal weapon up.

The blade had no suspense in a materialistic sense but it still cleaved the wretched piper in half directly up the middle. The two halves stayed together for a moment, before they toppled each to one side simultaneously with a dry thump.

The skull stayed intact on the right half but spilt into pieces on impact with the floor.

Raziel took several steps away from the corpse, for as he expected out of the remains of its material body came the creature true form; a wraith like archon, native being of the spectral realm. It trashed around as it was freed of its bindings, fading almost immediately drawn back to its proper realm, leaving only the shrivelled dusty shell it had been trapped inside.

Silence endured for a long moment, only broken by the princess harsh breathing that slowed as she managed to regain some of her lost sense and wit.

"I had wondered..." She began and then paused to take a deep steady breath. "...that perhaps I was being misled by you."

Raziel ignored her, eyes kept on the crumbling dusty remains of the Piper.

"But you have earned my trust tonight." She added.

The blue wraith raised his eyes slowly and then looked at her sidelong across one shoulder, flicking his wrist to dismiss his projected soul weapon.

Alicia was clearly un-nerved by his scrutiny and hesitated under his gaze, mouth half open. The wraith gestured down at the corpse at his feet.

"It came for you." He said slowly, almost accusingly.

"Of course it came for her!" A new voice declared and Raziel quickly turned to see that coming in through a door he hadn't even noticed during the fight were several of the Willendorf guard, swords drawn. Amongst them was another man with grey hair held back by a golden crown embossed with the symbol of a lion, dressed in armour similar to the soldiers only far more elaborate across the chest and pauldrons.

Clearly he was the King of Willendorf and the facial features were so similar to the princess' that the family lineage was obvious. The king had sunken eye sockets and a tired slump to his shoulders, but his face was full of an irritated sort of annoyed rage.

"It was her time to be taken, ghoul!" He spat, too lost in his anger to be surprised or even frightened by Raziel's presence. He turned to what the blue wraith presumed to be his daughter and actually snared.

"Alicia, you actually tried to resist it?" He asked in the tone of a man demanding an explanation.

The princess drew herself up, indignant.

"Of course I did!" She snapped back at her father. "Am I supposed to meekly be taken like some foundling babe..." She pointed an accusing finger at him. "Or any of the other females of our bloodline that we consigned to this fate?"

The king folded his arms across his chest, perhaps trying to look imperious.

"To be blunt, yes." He said brutally and even she flinched a little. "It's not your place to question the edicts of the first Ottmar."

Alicia stared at him, as if not quiteable to grasp the fact that her father had really just said that. She covered her confusion in righteous anger.

"What? Respect the edicts of a craven king who capitulated to every demand the Dollmaker made of him?" She asked spitefully. "Sorry father but I was born with a backbone!"

The king did not seem impressed by her defiance, if anything he grew even angrier. His lips pulled back over his yellowed teeth in a snarl.

"Insolent child!" The monarch spat. "You've put us all in danger! I should stake you out for the Pipers to find you!"

Realising that this shouting match was getting them or him nowhere, Raziel stepped between them blocking their line of sight of each other.

"Enough." He told them both. "Have your family squabble on someone else's time."

The guards drew up to either side of the king protectively and the monarch himself glared at the blue wraith.

"How dare you!" The human king began but Raziel raised his right hand and flicked his wrist, the Reaver emerging with a feral screech. The guards backed off in alarm despite themselves and the king's expression turned immediately from anger to surprised seamy, staring at the ghostly sword with its tip a mere few inches from the end of his nose.

"I'm in a bad mood." Raziel said to him flatly and leaned a little close intimidating. All of the king's guard backed off again, used to protecting their king from earthly threats and were unprepared for a being such as he. "Understand?"

The king said nothing, his eyes still fixed on the Reaver.

"Now turn around and leave." The blue wraith said firmly. The king took a deep breath, seeming to regain some of his bluster.

"You're damning us all!" He said, spluttering. Raziel shrugged and began shepherding the monarch and his shoulders backwards towards the door they had entered from.

"I'll decide whether or not I'll feel guilty about it later." He replied. "Go."

They did go and quite quickly, the guards evidentially more than happy to retreat from the issue even if only for now. The expression on the king's face however left Raziel in no doubt that he would not let this lie.

Raziel, not really caring at this point, shut the door in the face.

The princess came into the centre of the room, her arms wrapped protectively around her sides.

"It seems I owe you a more elaborate explanation." He said without looking at him.

Raziel snorted and turned to face her.

"And more besides." He said and sat down on the edge of a sofa which had survived the brawl with the Piper.

The princess remained standing. She cleared her throat a bit nervously.

"So ...where do I begin?" She asked, talking to herself and looking thoughtful.

"I don't care so long as you do." He said. She ignored the jab and kept on thinking. When she seemed to come to a conclusionshe nodded and looked at him.

"Very well." She said and then began. "Willendorf was enjoying the height of its power a century ago, before the rise of the Sarafan lord." She gestured out towards the windows where the banners of the occupying Sarafan hung to obscure the previous displays of the royal lion.

"The founder of the Ottmar dynasty had a daughter whom he doted upon, his only child from an otherwise barren wife. He declared to the entire kingdom that, to mark her eighteenth birthday, there would be a contest."

Raziel listened to the story unfold with growing scepticism.

"It was a contest to create the finest doll in the realm." Alicia explained. "It was said that hundreds of dolls were brought to the capital and presented to the princess but the winner, the creator of the finest doll that all agreed upon, was the little man from the borderlands."

Her expression turned fearful.

"Elziver the doll maker."

.

**_"The name dimly stirred in my memory. I had heard it somewhere before but the familiarity was only a distant prodding. I could not recall from where it originated." _**

.

The blue wraith sat there, deep in thought. He had definitely heard that name before. He was certain of it. He raked his memory trying to pick out from where, but it escaped him. It must have been either too obscure or it was from too long ago for him to properly remember.

"Elziver did not accept the promised reward, a royal favour." Alicia carried on. "Instead he asked for a mere lock of the princess' hair."

She paused then to let out an almost hysterical giggle.

"The man was even heralded for his chivalry." She said, still laughing low. "Barely a day later the princess had fallen into a sleep so deep she never woke from it again."

This was beginning to sound more and more like folklore to Raziel but he said nothing and let carry on.

"Elziver made it known to the royal family that he had taken her soul as his real payment." She said and the fear was obvious in her voice. "It was not long after that those Pipers started appearing, his minions sent to humble our kingdom by stealing our children."

That was no myth at least. Raziel had been witness to the first one's attempts to lead children out of their homes in the middle of the night.

"What for?" He asked sharply. "If he steals children****what does he do with them?"

"He never said." The princess replied with a shrug. "But ever since, once every ten years, he has come to claim the soul of a princess of the royal house."

She looked out the window, into the darkness beyond the candlelight. As if all the horrors of the night were just beyond the windowpane.

"This year it's my turn." Her voice was low.

Raziel looked at her flatly and without sympathy.

"And so that's why you need help." He determined out loud.

"Of course!" She replied irritably. "I am no simple headed maiden to go to her death because her father is too much of a coward to stand up for her!"

The blue wraith pondered all she had told him for a moment and then regarded her again.

"What does the royal family get out of this arrangement that they consider even the idea of resistance to be dangerous?" He asked, remembering the intense anger of her father.

"Little..." She admitted and some disgust crept into her voice. "But they're almost like trained dogs, grateful for whatever scraps are cast them." Alicia turned to look back at him over her shoulder. "But for a more substantial threat the dollmaker said that if the tithe of a princess' soul is suspended, even once, then he would come to take the souls of the entire royal family in consequence."

Raziel raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"So they sacrifice the maidens to preserve themselves?" He asked but without any evident criticism for the practise.

Alicia nodded

"Thus is the blood of the proud lion spilt out in cowardice." She turned to look at him."You're the first...person... to challenge this status quo for a century."

.

**_"Her hypocrisy was more them palpable. She decried her family for their cowardice but her motivations are just as selfish, her only concern to save her own skin with no heed of the consequences to her family or people." _**

.

Clearly Alicia meant to save herself even if the Dollmaker killed off her entire family for her disobedience. Nor did she seem overly wrought by the abduction of generations of commoner children.

Still he wondered, what business was it of his what she did or the fate of this kingdom which was doomed anyway? He could gain nothing by helping her escape her fate and perhaps the wisest course of caution would be to simply walk way and leave the selfish little creature to whatever fate she could manage.

He looked up when he saw her crossing to the window, looking out intently as if she had seen something. After a moment the princess nodded and began to push the shutter open.

"What are you doing?" Raziel asked. She ignored the question but instead pointed back towards the door.

"Check the door; make sure we are not being spied on." That she presumed to give him an order made him blink.

"What for?" He asked flatly. She half turned and gave him a little smile.

"Indulge me." She said and pushed the window open. Raziel frowned at her but got up, crossed over to the door and opened it a crack.

The outside corridor was empty. With a nod he closed it again and bolted it shut.

"We are alone." He said, still taken aback by her sudden strange behaviour.

"Keep yourself out of sight." She told him and by now Raziel was so confused that he did it without question; going over to the antechamber he had entered from and closing the door just enough to leave a crack wide enough for him to look through.

After a moment, a rough hand in a leather glove pulled itself up over the battlements just beyond the window. It was followed by an arm, attached to which was a human in travelling garb. Exhausted from the climb up the battlements****the human managed the last pull in through the window before he collapsed to its knees on the floor; breathing hard.

From the look of him, travel stained and weary; Raziel supposed him to be a scout of some kind.

"Milady." He began but had to falter, he had still not caught his breath. The blue wraith wondered as why Alicia had compelled him to climb the side of the castle to avoid being seen entering her quarters.

"You found it?" She asked intently, ignoring his obvious exhaustion.

The scout nodded.

"Yes..." He said. "But I am afraid that I did not escape unnoticed." She waved off his attempted apology.

"That does not matter so long as you can tell me where it is."She said. "It's vital.

"I have a map, Milady." The scout said but stopped her, holding up a hand to keep her from asking. There was an excitement in his eyes that eclipsed her own. "But that is not what I came here to tell you."

She looked down at her scout questioningly.

"By chance Milady I have found the source of the Dollmaker**'**s power!" Her eyes' widened to ovals in response.

"What is it?" She demanded her voice a hushed and rasping whisper. The scout rubbed his face and soothed arching muscles. 

"I cannot see how but he has the sword!"He said.

"The sword?" She repeated in irritable confusion. "What sword?

Her scout looked at her with the same sort of confusion, as if he did not understand it either.

"The Reaver, Milady!"He said. "Elziver the doll maker has the Soul Reaver!"


	30. 29 Kain Kings Gambit

A few feet down beyond the doorway, the passage was engulfed in absolute darkness. As they walked Kain held out his hand and summoned to him a small floating wisp of pulsing magic light that illuminated the path before them.

The stairs led down and down, turning abruptly at ninety degree angles every fifty feet or so and always to the left.

Kain had the feeling they were walking in a descending square, travelling around a rectangular pillar of stone as they descended.

The winding stair seemed to go on some distance and gradually the corridor widened out, the ceiling rising up high and out of the range of his light source. Then the stairs stopped and they found themselves standing upon a flat metallic surface, tightly tiled with rivets in the corners of each one. There was nothing but the sense of a cavernous space beyond the meagre range of the light. Beside him, Ewoden sniffed in all directions but frowned and said nothing apparently not picking up any scent worth mentioning.

There was the obvious smell of metal from all around, thick with rust and left a irritable taste in the mouth.

Clenching a fist Kain summoned as much light as he could, forcing the radius of his spell to expand out revealing more and more of the cavern.

Slowly the shadows gave up their secrets, a huge expanse revealed to their eyes. High above them was a huge ceiling, curved and perfectly smooth made of the same tiled material upon which they stood.

The floor ended a short distance away, cut off from a deep drop into a black abyss by a buttress of metal.

Kain slowly craned his head up as the looming visage widened, revealing to him a massive face set in metal; standing all and proud with one hand raised to support the ceiling. The statue was colossal, its head perhaps as wide as the base of the Pillars themselves with a crest that swept back over the skull and into the darkness.

The statue depicted the same Hylden nobleman he had been throughout the hidden ruins, he was unmistakable by now and with this monumental depiction clearly an individual of importance. The colossus, which had perhaps once been made of a shining metal, was spotted with large patched of red rust which had eaten through into the scaffolding ridden interior.

The face was strangely untouched however and its eyes, made from a paled glass, seemed to follow the two intruders to this place inexorably with its gaze.

Coming over to the edge, Kain held out his hand with its magical glow and looked down. The light did not penetrate the gloom of that abyss but judging by the size of the statue and the echo the sound of his footsteps made, he judged it not be more than a hundred feet or so down to a floor.

But even that was a goodly way down.

To his left there was a curve ramp leading down into the abyss, a walkway armed on either side to make it more like a suspended corridor of metal. Kain had seen similar architecture before, in the ancient device which had lain beneath the city of Meridian.

He stepped onto it, testing it for stability with one foot before he carried on. It was quite likely there would be places were once sound structures would fall apart for lack of maintenance.

Ewoden came up behind him, pausing with even more distrust at the walkway, it being so alien to him that he only carried on with Kain's example before him.

Together the two of them went down, following the curving path. It went on for some distance, encircling the statue going down and down. By the use of the magical light Kain saw that the walls of the pit were circular and had many corridors leading off from them; each one marked by a sign with a set of runes he could not read.

The walls between them were not bare, either carrying a pipe that wound back and forth like a coiled snake or an elaborate mechanical arm that ended in an insect like pincer, these running on rails to allow them to move up and down the wall.

As they approached the floor, Kain saw that this was not fully clear either. Around the arched feet of the Hylden statue were holes, perhaps about a foot across and arranged in a crescent circle. Stuck halfway in through several were glass tubs about the height of a man's chest and as wide. They had long since cracked open and their contents were gone, covered in dust.

.

**_"It was now beyond all doubt that the Hylden had once called this mountain stronghold home, for before me sprawled a deep labyrinthine complex of alien machines whose function I could not guess at."_**

.

Something however caught his eye, hidden behind the curve of the statue's leg on the far side. Walking a short distance to investigate, he found a collection of metal tables that seemed quite out of place amongst this strange equipment in this place. These tables looked more modern, despite the layer of dust covering them.

Tarnished brass candlesticks stood in various places, the wax long since concealed into a lumpy substance running down the shaft to the table. There were many of them, evidence that someone had once spent a great deal of time here.

As he approached, he saw that there were about three tables and they were all covered in parchment sheets and books, pilled upon one another. Some of these had spilled off onto the floor, others were rolled up and some had been pinned down by an antique looking, but still more modern, goblet.

Coming over, the vampire brushed away the dust covering the papers. The ink upon them had faded with age but was just about legible.

Some were sketches of that Kain supposed to be of the machinery around them, annotated by notes in a spidery hand of what the artists supposed each part was for. Others contained diagrams that escaped him completely and seemed to be the product of a delirious mind, the handwriting wobbly and hard to make out as if written in a frenzy.

The overall intent seemed clear to the vampire, as he looked through the parchments one by one, however. An effort had been deliberately made by someone to try to understand and replicate Hylden technology and scientific thought.

.

**_"And here too was more evidence of Malek's plagiarism." _**

.

Then he came across a bundle of parchment sheets buried underneath a stack of papers, bound together with twine. It seemed to be a makeshift journal of some sort, full of day to day notes and progress reports.

This he picked up, holding it gingerly for it looked quite fragile. As his eyes canned the material before him, a dawning suspicion began to grow in his mind for the words were written by someone whose life story he was very familiar with.

The writer of this journal made frequent references to 'the prophecy' and the 'redemption'. Redemption featured quite heavily in the text, a central theme that the writer went on and on about to the point of nausea.

But in one passage the writer broke off from his description of Hylden science into a non sequitur phrase, where he referred to himself as 'the broken necromancer'.

.

**_"But not just his either, for the signature upon these research notes was that of the Guardian of Death, Mortanious; the very man who had changed me into a vampire. Had all his supposed magic come from Hylden technology, stolen from this hidden fortress?"_**

**_._**

Kain began to quickly life back through everything else on the table, viewed now in the context of Mortanious' work it began to become clear. Kain knew his creators personality well and now these notes made sense to his mind, even if he did not understand the specifics.

What had the necromancer expected to learn in this place? And why had Malek even granted him access, when he had gone to so much trouble to hide the mountains secrets? Judging by the now antique state of this work station Kain guessed that this place hadn't been visited since the Necromancer's death, which in this time has been over a century ago.

.

**_"Just what did this all portend?" _**

.

On an impulse, Kain flipped through the necromancers old notes one last time looking for a specific thing. Eventually he found it, a large diagram of the Nexus Stone sketched in charcoal and very lifelike.

Although Kain wasn't entire sure if he was unnerved or reassured by this.

"The air down here is bad." Ewoden said, looking over at the side corridors leading off from this main chamber.

Kain put down the papers and sniffed himself. Sure enough, now that his attention was drawn to it, he could smell the scent of trapped air beginning to move. This cavern must have been shut off since the necromancer's untimely end.

"We'll let it circle for a while to be rid of any old gases." The vampire said, judging the breeze coming down through the way they had come to be enough to clear the tunnels enough for them.

The lycanthrope emissary looked around at their surroundings with puzzled interest.

"What is this place?" He asked in a low tone, his voice carrying a faint metallic echo. Kain, placing the notes out of his mind, turned to regard them with him.

"Ruins left by an ancient race known as the Hylden." He said.

Ewoden's eyes widened and he turned his head sharply to look at the vampire.

"The race of Ambraxas?" He asked and there was a note of contempt and distain in his voice, the corners of his lips pulling back into the beginnings of a snarl. Having understood some of the emissaries antagonism against the one responsible for the tortuous creation of his breed, Kain perceived the beginning of a prejudice against the Hylden.

Perhaps it was not an unwarranted resentment for it had been their science that allowed Ambraxas' experiments, but Kain frowned at the brewing racial distaste. It was a foolish sort preoccupation that tended to distract one from genuine threats.

"They are ... a misunderstood people." He said, choosing his words carefully. "Be careful not to paint them all with a single brush."

The reminder of how humans viewed his own species was a subtle enough hint to make the Lycanthrope bristle and his lips relaxed back over his teeth, although his eyes were still dark and troubled.

It was perhaps another half an hour before the tangy smell of trapped gas had diminished enough to the point where Kain felt it safe to explore onwards.

Determining their path from this point onwards was not difficult. Even if he could not ready the ancient and dead language that denoted each passageway, he judged that one particular corridor to be more important than the others as its entranced was more elaborately decorated with intertwining pillars of rusted metal.

Keeping the orb of magical light floating above his palm, Kain took the lead slowly letting the light push the shadows away before proceeding. He had the uncomfortable sensation of walking into a room full of creatures, invisible to the senses but malevolent in their silent watching.

When they came to their first mural, Kain almost didn't recognise it from any other stretch of wall before he was fully upon it. The image stretched up high above and Kain had to raise his hand to let the light illuminate it all.

Whereas the murals in the ruins of the ancient vampires tended to be stories and histories in pictographic form the Hylden used them for quite another purpose. These seemed to be blueprints of some kind or hypothetical designs, for what looked like an artificial person.

The thing depicted had arms and legs but was far taller and stouter then any human or vampire Kain had ever seen and there were notes in the same glyph writing along either side, annotations to explain each part.

.

**_"I could not hope to understand the fruits of their scientific research, even if it had not been written in a language I could understand. But this diagram seemed particularly intriguing." _**

.

But was what interesting was that amongst these notes were various symbols that he did recognise, having them seem more than once in Vampiric ruins and even shown by Ajatar Cadre to him. Carved with some care was the ancient vampire symbol for the element of fire.

What a vampire symbol was doing in a buried Hylden ruin Kain could not say but it did raise some interesting questions.

.

**_"Just what kind of technology had they been pushing to develop in such a place?"_**

.

A crumbling but large side door led off from the main corridor, so rusty that large holes had opened all over it. When Kain pressed a hand to the thing it crumbled, the hinges disintegrated at the slightest stress and causing the door to fall inwards with a loud clatter.

The room beyond was an amphitheatre, raised dais all facing inward towards a central lower platform where a podium was raised.

A meeting chamber... or school perhaps?

No, the giant diagram at the back of the chamber with its complex details and annotated markings dissuaded him of that notion. It was far too complex for anyone but its creators to understand and add to. This was a room reserved for study and scientific conversation about this one subject.

****The picture before him, as he walked down a metallic rail that clanked with each step, seemed to be an advanced form of diagram, showing images of Hylden standing in a row. There were about ten of them and the one in the middle of their row was taller than the others and seemed to have that same head crest that the statue of the nobleman had.

Directly below them was a visage of slathering, entwined tentacles covered in eyes that seemed to be reaching up towards them as if trying to grasp prey. Kain could never forget the image of the False God, his true enemy and knew it instantly for what it was.

These Hylden ignored the danger below and were all reaching up high above their heads imploringly . Out of their mouths and eyes a wispy spirit like form was rising, ghostly figures that emerged together into one whole entity.

This mass of wispy forms was drawn together even higher above and then drawn together and then condensed up into some type of round object surrounded by the shape of a skull... Kain paused and looked at the small pin prick on the design more closely.

Yes indeed... no doubt about it, the Nexus Stone. The image seemed to suggest that the Stone was formed out of the souls of Hylden.

.

**_"This mural left no room for doubt. The Nexus Stone was indeed a Hylden artefact and it seemed a relic of some importance to them." _**

.

He took a step forward and in that single step, his chest pulsed and burned; numbness spreading out like a forest fire from his left hand side. The attack came far swifter this time then ever before, penetrating him right down to his bones in a matter of seconds.

The whips of light he was using began to falter as he collapsed to one knee; his free hand grasping his chest.

"N..no not now!" He gasped, struggling to breath.

**_._**

**_"The throbbing painful weakness was upon me again, even worse than before. I felt my body sway and my mind ebb as if being bleed. Desperately I fought against it but to no avail." _**

**_._**

Ewoden as at his side, trying to help him up but it was no use. His vision swam and senses retreated, pulling back from him as a surging powerful darkness reached out and plucked him up as easily as he might pick out a hen from a hen house.


	31. 30 Raziel Decadent

Raziel listened with only half an ear, numbly with no emotion or effort diverted to digesting the scout's words as perhaps he should. Those three words now occupied all of his mental attention, his mind enwrapped in them and refusing to budge from anything else.

'The Soul Reaver'.

How was it possible? It defied everything he knew, all logic and reasoning. How could the blade have ended up in the possession of a mediocre and petty mage in the wilderness when by all rights in this era, it ought to be in the hands of the Sarafan Lord after Kain lost it in battle.

Even now, when he had faced his free of death and destiny, the name of that unique sword still made him twitch despite himself.

"It is as the old stories say Milady." The scout said to the princess as he laid out the detailed map of Nosgoth on the table, laying out the route slowly. He looked very pale, with sweat travelling down the sides of a shockingly white face.

Strangely the man seems to grow weaker and more putrid looking the longer he was standing still or at rest.

"The dollmaker lives in a workshop far to the north." He said, placing a finger down on some point on the map north of Willendorf. "It stands upon a small marshy island in the middle of the Lake of Lost souls."

Alicia stared down at the map, clear and obvious excitement and exultation.

"Nothing more appropriate." She said, her voice verging on the edge of hysteria. Briefly Raziel wondered what her plan might be. Would she attempting to confront and kill the Dollmaker to end the reign of terror he had excreted over her and this kingdom? If this man had the Soul Reaver then she did not know what she was getting herself into.

Still the puzzle of the sword vexed him. Clearly the Reaver seemed to be in two places at once, in the hands of the Sarafan Lord and the grasp of this 'Elziver'. There was only one way that was possible and Raziel hoped that he would not have to endure another paradox in order to find out.

The scout cleared his throat, gargling a little in a sickly way before he continued directing with a shaking hand.

Raziel's attention was finally diverted enough to notice that something was wrong. The scout was trembling from head to toe and did not seem to notice his condition.

"During the winter the lake freezes over." The human went on and his voice gargled. "And that is what permits his Pipers to come out at this time each year."

The princess looked up in surprise then, seemingly drawn from her own thought. One look at her scouts face was enough. She stumbled back with a loud scream of absolute terror.

Oozing out of the man's eyes, nose and mouth came thick and sluggish wriggling worms. Dozens of them came crawling out of every orifice in his head, quickly coating the face and drowning the man's scream of pain and horror in their numbers.

Raziel flew into the room and grabbed Alicia, pulling her bodily away from the flailing body. The scout's body was rapidly being consumed by the fat and slimy leeches, each one a pale dirty gold and slippery with bodily excretions.

The man collapsed to his knees and then to his front. By the time he hit the floor most of his mass was gone and he was reduced to a heap of heaving organs and flesh being eaten rapidly by hundreds of these worms.

Raziel stared at the corpse as the grisly feast continued and even the clothes the man had worn were consumed. Despite his gruesome appearance Alicia clung to him, trembling terribly and unable to turn her eyes away from the terrible scene before her.

"It would seem..." The blue wraith began in a low tone. "...that the dollmaker got him after all."

The princess was breathing in sharply and quickly through her nose as if trying desperately not to be sick.

"What..." She managed in a choked voice, clearly all she could say. Raziel sighed and shook his head a little ruefully.

"It's a spell called Font of Putrescence, slow acting and exceedingly painful." He explained. By now all that remained of the scout was a puddle of steaming liquid staining the carpet. The worms, with nothing else to eat, had turned upon one another in a battle of surging hunger. They were disgusting to watch, grubs whose only purpose was to feed.

For the moment they were still lethal to any living that was foolish enough to come within leaping distance. They would eagerly progress to another host and consume that as eagerly as the first.

This cruel spell was not one vampires preferred to use that often. Even the most experienced of their kind, preferring to kill or stun prey rather then reduce it to unrecognisable mush.

The blue wraith stared at the disgusting scene, his thoughts slowly churning inside his head. Somehow the sight seems to help him clarify his mind, focus his intentions, priorities and motivations so they were clear another to analyse.

.

**_"The reason why I am come to his failing kingdom was put in clarity. Do I call this fate or manipulation? It doesn't matter for my duty is clear."_**

.

The word 'duty' sat oddly even in his own private thoughts, but still it was the only word to describe the sense of obligation that seemed compelling. But it was there and had to be called for what it was.

.

**_"This dollmaker must not be allowed to keep the sword. For the sake of the, regrettably, important destiny of the Scion of Balance it had to be returned to its rightful owner. As distasteful as it was to do Kain another favour, I was well aware of how important his role was to the future of Nosgoth."_**

.

While Raziel had sworn to be Kain's right hand and sword during the confrontation below the ancient citadel, that did not mean that the blue wraith had to really like the vampire. But Raziel knew better than to let his own sentiments get in the way of his vision of what was truly important.

Kain had lost the Reaver in battle with his past incarnation and it was only proper and if he was honest, just, that he be the one to rectify that.

"Ghoul..." His attention drawn, Raziel looked down to see the princess looking up at him. Her face was set with frustrated fear, anger and hot resentment –directed not at him but at a fate she could not change. He knew the expression well.

"Raziel..." He corrected her almost without thinking. She ignored him.

"I have nothing to trade for this request..." Alicia started, fists trembling at her sides. "But I beg of you!" The degree of sincerity in her voice, whole unexpected, had him taken aback. "Find the Dollmaker and kill him!"

Then she actually held his hand, gripping his talons with her earnest plea.

"Free Willendorf from this nightmare!"

Raziel stared down at her with wide eyes.

Before he could even think of anything to say in reply, the door to the apartment burst open. The blue wraith turned sharply but not in time. Dozens of men, all clad in white armour, stormed into the room. Swords were drawn and shields held at the ready. By their sheer force they shoved the two of them aside and Alicia was hurled back into the far side of the room.

Raziel was forced to back up against the window.

"Enough!" An anger ridden voice spat and striding into the room appeared the King. So he had not retreated, only paused long enough to collect sufficient men for this siege. Behind him were perhaps ten marksmen, holding crossbows aimed directly at Raziel and poised to fire.

The king ignored the wraith. He promptly strode up to his daughter and slapped her across the face. Since he was wearing an armoured gauntlet he cut her, a gash opening across her check. She didn't cry out but the blood ran freely to drip onto the floor.

"You would endanger us this way!" Her father asked her with savage fury. "Plotting against the Dollmaker was bad enough but spying on him, preparing an assault!"

Raziel's opinion of the man dropped even further if he was prepared to eavesdrop.

"You foolish girl, what would have happened when you failed?" The king asked the young woman who looked up at him with pain ridden defiance. "The dollmaker would have come for all of us!"

Finally Raziel cut in.

"You could fight." He suggested. The soldiers separating them looked at each over nervously, as if the mere suggestion was dangerous. In that moment Raziel saw that Alicia's opinion of the nation of Willendorf was entirely correct. They were licked curs, dogs with a master.

"You don't know the doll-makers power, Ghoul!" The king said, rounding on him. Raziel kept his own tone low and cold.

"I think your daughter is more self severing than she likes to admit, even to herself." He said and Alicia looked at him. "But she is right about one thing though."

He raised a talon and swung his arm around, gesturing to all of them contemptuously.

"You're all a pack of yellow bellied dogs, rolling over to show your bellies."

The king met his gaze, unblinking. Slowly his lips pulled back into a sneer.

"Well fed dogs." He replied and then gestured to his men.

The sword men pulled back and the crossbowmen leaned forward. Raziel acted on instinct, rolling down as a shower of bolts punched through the air and smashed the windows he had stood in front of. As he rolled, he summoned the Reaver in a flurry and sliced it across the legs of the nearest man. His calves separated into bloody stumped and he collapsed to the floor in an agonised scream.

"Raziel!" Coming to his feet, Raziel saw the princess being bundled out the door and into the hallway, closely followed by the king. A dozen armed men barred his way while the crossbows on either side were being fitted for a second volley.

Acting on instinct, the wraith darted quickly to his left, the tip of the blade of a pike passing an inch from his receding body. Grabbing the weapon he yanked the soldier forward, tipping him off balance. The man then recoiled backwards after Raziel smashed his elbow into his face with enough force to break his face, the skull caving into his head. The pleasure was too much and the back of his head fractured out in a spray of blood and bone fragments.

Two swords stabbed in from behind, puncturing the thin nerveless membrane of his ruined wings. Raziel felt some small amount of his energy leech away at the minor injury. Snarling he spun back, spinning to knock the men's feet out from under them. One he was upon before he even hit the floor, flashing and tearing with his talons. As the other man rolled away, several came in with spears raised to skewer him already stabbing down.

Raziel jumped back to try and avoid them. Several caught him in the thigh and pinned him down. His ruined body felt less pain then a regular one but he was knocked back to the ground with a painful gasp.

His vision swam a little as his energy flowed out of him. Viciously he brought forth the Reaver and slashed at anything in his path, frenzied in his attempt to get free. The wraith blade sang its greedy song as it sliced through the air.

The agonised screams brought him some satisfaction and he felt the pressure being applied to his leg ebbed and with some effort he brought free and got back to up his feet.

Several men lie dead or screaming before him, clutching bloody stumps were arms and legs had once been. The stone floor of the apartment was slippery with blood and chunks of flesh. Despite their losses the guardsmen were still protecting the doorway, swords drawn and shield held. They were professional fighting men, well trained and disciplined.

Raziel could not afford to waste time, they were doing their best to bar him from following the king as he took his own daughter off to be sacrificed in some cowardly appeasement.

The blue wraith looked around, counting the number left still carrying some sort of weapon. He counted ten excluding the crossbow men who had finished resetting their weapons to fire again, raising them all in one motion to point their bolts directly at him.

Raziel was standing far closer now than before on their last volley and even his reflexes could not dodge them at that close range.

Once he was stuck with all those bolts the guardsmen would be on him in an instant, not giving him a moment to recover.

There too many too close and time was running out. He had one spoilt second to make a decision.

Raziel made the only real decision he could, releasing his hold on the matter that made up his body. The world around him seemed to moan in one single low voice, shifting and churning; physical objects morphing to parodies of their former selves.

Slipping into the Spectral realm, Raziel felt some measure of energy and strength return and the armed men blocking his way disappeared for they did not exist here. Colours drained away replaced by the all pervading green and blue of this place of spirits.

The blue wraith took a few moments to collect himself, breathing shallowly. He would have to move quickly, head north. By now the princess was out of his reach within the castle but there was a chance of perhaps cutting across the path they would take there.

While saving Alicia was not high in his list of priorities, Raziel's true goal lay north as well. If the doll maker presumed to hold the Soul Reaver, he would have to accept there would be those willing to wrest it from his fingers.


	32. 31 Kain Stone Forge

**_ "I floated to the surface of a sea of pain and burning unconsciousness a bloated corpse slowly returning to life."_**

**_._**

When Kain opened his eyes his vision was blurred, swimming as if he was seeing the world around him from underwater. He could hear sounds but alone distant, as if they were distant echoes in a cave. He lay there and let his body slowly recover by itself, not forcing the issue and risk provoking another attack.

He blinked and slowly but surely his sight cleared and he found himself staring at the arched black stone ceiling high above. One by one his other senses seemed to return and clarify, pieces of the puzzling filling themselves in.

He was back in the main hall of Malek's bastion. He could feel the cold air around him and the sense of others nearby.

.

**_"That attack was by far the worse I had endured thus far. Some time had obviously passed since I had fallen." _**

**_._**

With a grunt the vampire hoisted himself up into a sitting position. As he half suspected, he was indeed back in the courtyard where the old man had set his campfire, the embers of the flames being fed by Ewoden from the far side with twigs and other small bits of gathered material. The long dark shadows all around them gave testament to the late hour. It had stopped snowing by now but the air was still bitterly cold.

Ezekiel was huddled into a corner with his clock drawn up about him even though he was right next to the fire, his face pale and set with eyes locked on the floor.

Kain paused to flex different parts of his body, testing the strength and reflexes. He had been severely weakened by that attack. Each one he suffered made him progressively weaker, as if sapping away his endurance. If they continued eventually he would not be able to recover at all.

.

**_"For the moment I was unhindered but still the need for me to find out why I was suddenly now prone to these attacks and to find a solution to them was all encompassing. Somehow, I felt that the answer lay here so close I could almost put my hand upon it."_**

.

Glancing down he saw that the Nexus Stone was still strapped to his wrist, its surface gleaming in the fire light that sprung up again.

.

**_"I was close... but I was also running out of time."_**

**_._**

Ewoden had noticed him rise but had said nothing, continuing to feed the fire until it could burn on its own without constant feeding.

"How long have I been unconscious?" Kain asked, his voice echoing in the cavernous hall as he managed to get back up somewhat stiffly onto one knee. His sense of balance had not completely returned yet. The emissary's eyes flicked up to him and then back down at the fire.

"Six hours." He replied. Kain absorbed that slowly and let his mind adjust to the sudden change of elapsed time. "I didn't know what else to do so I carried you back here."

It took the vampire a moment to run through recent memory to remember what had happened. He had seen the underground lecturing chamber and had collapsed before that display, the one showing what had appeared to be the creation of the Nexus Stone.

While it confirmed the fact that the stone had been made here and by the Hylden he was still no closer to discovering its purpose or nature. But there had to be more to learn in the ancient ruins below the Bastion. It was imperative that he get back down there at once.

Kain got back to his feet and happened to glance over at the old human. It was then he noticed that Ezekiel was not just cold but breathing shallowly and his eyes held some measure of pain.

"Old man, what ails you?" He asked, not wanting any surprises. Ezekiel coughed to clear his throat and sat up a little straighter.

"S...same thing that ails you I think." He replied in a voice he was obviously fighting to keep level and neutral. The old man placed a hand very lightly upon his chest. "My heart's not as strong as i...it used to be. I get little flutters now and then."

Kain's frown deepened and he looked at the old man with new interest. He was no fool to ignore unlikely coincidence, that the old man would just happen to have difficulties of the heart at the same time he did?

He pushed the thought away. Perhaps having dealt with Moebius and his manipulating ilk for so long he had become paranoid about such things. How is it strange that old men would have bodily difficulties? It was the most natural thing in the world.

Still the old man's presence kept unnerving him so he determined not to indulge his paranoia and get to work.

"We must get back down there immediately." He told Ewoden. The werewolf looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You have the endurance?" He asked. Kain snorted derisively in response.

"Don't insult me." The vampire stated and walked on towards the large archway that led out into the courtyard. "There is still so much to learn."

Behind him, Ezekiel raised an eyebrow and a managed a weak smile

"Learning is good." The old man said with a nod. Grunting he managed to get up to his feet and his old bones creaked audibly as he did so. "I approve of learning." Kain paused to look back over his shoulder incredulously as Ezekiel made to follow him, walking steady if a bit lopsidedly.

Ezekiel paused at Kain's incredulous look and regarded it with a stare of his own.

"Don't give me that look, vampire."He said in a disarming fashion. "I'm old and on my last legs. If I'm going to die I'd like to do it while looking at something interesting." The old man paused and cocked his head with a quizzical expression. "You have found something interesting?"

Kain was silent for a long protracted moment before he turned away.

"Interesting enough." He replied and walked off. "Don't fall behind; I'm not coming back for you."

The door behind Malek's throne was still wide open and the path down to the hidden chambers clear. Kain descended as fast as he could walk, not running but swiftly proceeding as fast as was safe for his body in its tender state.

Ewoden kept up with the pace he set without difficulty and surprisingly Ezekiel did as well, stumbling occasionally but not slowing until they reached the point looking out at the colossal statue of the Hylden noble that stood inside the main shaft.

The tunnels below were easily accessed again and this time Kain began a methodical search, allowing Ewoden to venture off to explore side tunnels and corridors. As a lycanthrope he had a better sense of location and could cover ground quicker.

Kain stuck to exploring the main corridor and ignoring the side exits, letting the tunnel lead him on. Ezekiel followed him, always keeping a prudent distance but remaining within Kain's line of sight. The old man's casual and neutral acceptance of the mountains hidden interior was strange. It was as if he simply didn't care that it was here.

He also seemed pretty endurable for an elderly man with heart difficulties.

The tunnel dipped at a very slight angle, curving around the main central shaft like a snail shell. As it carried on the walls and floor became progressively smoother, the panels and sheets of metal becoming larger and larger until finally it was all one piece as if the entire corridor had been forged from one piece of metal.

Kain's pace slowed and he looked around him, a frown creasing his face.

This deeper into the ruins he went there was a pervading sense of 'wrongness' , as if somehow his presence here was an alien force in a place that was inimical to outside interference. He felt like a piece of metal in a festering wound, sinking into the bloody tissue. It was not a pleasant sensation.

If Kain were to try and put what he was sensing into words, then he might say that it felt like being very close to a site of great anguish and suffering, where the lives of many had been spent all had once and was leaving a disturbing echo.

Even Ezekiel, who was maintaining a discreet distance, appeared apprehensive although his withered human senses could never hope to pick up the trembles of agony Kain felt in the air. The Nexus Stone on Kain's arm however remained unhelpfully quiet and dull.

Suddenly Ewoden emerged from a side room, his mass receding back upon itself as it morphed back to human form.

"Something of note?" Kain asked him. The emissary scratched the back of his head, twisted and stretched until a bone snapped somewhere along his spine. The tension in his back relieved he looked the vampire full on.

"I am no judge on such things." He replied but his expression spoke volumes. Kain motioned for him to lead the way and the lycanthrope turned and gestured for them to follow him. Ezekiel took up the rear without comment.

The room Ewoden led them too was not far and that sense of intrusion only deepened as Kain drew near and entered it.

The room had metallic buttresses holding up a high vaulted ceiling, running back towards a far wall. The acoustics of the room did not grab Kain's immediate attention however all his had been directed onto the suits of armour standing in rows throughout the room.

.

**_"I had already been inclined to believe Malek a thief, stealing Hylden secrets. This was the final piece of evidence to confirm it."_**

**_._**

They were of far more recent make then this fortress for Kain recognised their make. They were Sarafan sets of armour, their chest and battle standard completely unmistakable. They were not all the same suit either. Some held axes, others swords and even some with old bows. The isolated position had kept them all remarkably free of rust. Walking through them was very much like walking through a sleeping army. The foreboding and illogical feeling of them watching was very strong.

Just like everywhere else in this ruin there was no dust and the army seemed almost new and in pristine condition.

**_._**

**_"The suits of armour in stood lines as if as if freshly mass produced, perhaps still awaiting the soul of an unwitting Sarafan warrior to be shoved inside them. Malek's cruelty and hypocrisy were deliciously potent indeed." _**

.

So this was where Malek had experimented with the machines and then harnessed the smaller generators above? Kain had no doubt of that now. The mysterious nature of Mortanious' worktable here however still loomed large and in turn upon the nature of the so called 'magic' of the circle of nine. Could it have all been simply left over technology from Hylden and the Ancient vampires? If so that made the guardians even more the charlatans he had suspected them to be.

Ewoden led them through the army of standing metal, weaving through the ranks of armour to the far end of the room. The lycanthrope stopped there and gestured up at the wall, which now that Kain's attention had been drawn to it he saw that it was no wall at all.

It was divided down the middle from ceiling to floor in the dead centre. Directly in the centre was an engraved image in the metal, buffed and embossed. It was the face of that same Hylden nobleman they had seen throughout the ruin, staring back at them with a grim expression.

"It's obviously a door." Ewoden remarked, laying a hand against its surface. "But I see no means of opening it."

Kain frowned and looked at the door for a long moment. His instincts told him something important lay beyond. He raised the stone and looked from it to the door and back. This may be where the stone had been guiding him to go.

Looking around he saw that to either side of the door were two pedestals with long elaborate switches to turn mechanical gears atop each one. Four in all they ringed the door in a semi circle facing inward. Alongside each door towards these pedestals were several niches in the wall, in which sat metallic plates engraved with some of the images Kain had seen throughout this ruin already. They had captions underneath in the Hylden language, probably descriptions of each scene.

Investigating the switches, Kain found them to be stiff from disuse and requiring some force in order to move them.

When the vampire pushed one down, there was a loud audible shunt from beneath his feet and the unmistakable sound of hidden gears turning. With a groan of protest the nearest of the metallic plates set into the niches retracted back sharply into the wall and then spun away; replaced by another plate with a different picture engraved into it.

Ewoden regarded the device with a thoughtful expression.

"A locking device?" He supposed.

"Apparently so." Kain replied. "It seems to me that the door will open if we solve the puzzle."

The lycanthrope frowned.

"A cumbersome mechanism for keeping out intruders."

"But effective."

Ezekiel was looking at the new plate that had swung into place, tracing the outlines of the image with his wrinkled hand. The new image showed that same picture Kain had seen in the lecturing chamber, the one with the Nexus stone drawing in extruded essences of Hylden.

"The king who holds the stone of the damned souls." He muttered as if to himself. Kain turned and looked at him sharply.

"What did you say?" the vampire asked with some annoyance. "You can read it?" Ezekiel blinked and turned back to them looking a little whimsical.

"Wouldn't that be something?" He asked rhetorically. "But I believe the pictures tell a story." Kain kept his eyes on the old man now, his earlier vague suspicion fanned into a full-fledged certainty that Ezekiel was far more then he pretended to be.

However the old human had a point. Now that Kain's attention was drawn to it, the various plates in the niches did seem to be telling the same story. They were depicting events that took place but they were out of order, some set before others that shouldn't be.

Kain realised that Ezekiel was right. These plates had to be set in chronological sequence. He approached the plates and looked at each of them in turn.

"This Hylden..." He began, pointing towards a picture of that same nobleman. "He was their king." He pulled on the corresponding lever and the slate swung away, changing its position with another and became the first in the sequence.

Kain's mind worked quickly, putting the story together in his own mind from what he had observed to get to this point and pulled on another lever.

"He took the souls of those of his people killed in the ancient war between my kind and theirs." He said as another picture came into place. "And forged them into a stone."

The third plate showing that very forging swung into place.

"The Nexus Stone."

The final picture to be put in sequence was an image of the Nexus Stone itself, surrounded by the image of a skull. Once it had slotted into place, the machinery hidden in the walls shuddered and moaned loudly.

.

**_"As if confirming my translation of their fable the spirit of the long dead Hylden who had lived here gave away their final secrets and permitted me entry to their core chamber." _**

**_._**

The door protested as being forced to give way but yielded eventually and swung inwards, grating upon the floor with sparks illuminating the darkness.

The chamber beyond was shaped like a hexagon with six curving sides. At the edges of each of the six walls stood stone pillars holding up the metal ceiling above. Directly over the centre of the room there was a grill leading up into shaft that lanced directly up. Below this was a platform engraved with a strange sort of symbol that Kain didn't recognise; a sort of inverted 'V' shape with many decorative runes added down its sides.

Arranged directly in front and to either side the remaining five of the chambers six walls were strange creations that looked odd even here.

They were slanted devices made of bronze but shaped like the tops of Hylden heads, the green emotionless eyes staring forward towards the centre of the room. The tips of their noses met the floor and the tops of their crests merged into the device behind the decorative face and continued up to meet the ceiling. All five of these heads had their eyes rolled upwards.

But Kain could see more than just the room's appearance. This chamber was the centre of it, the eye of that storm of agony he had felt brewing down here. In this room sufficient pain and torment had been induced to allow its echo to remain.

The vampire's left arm began to tingle and instinctively he raised it up, holding up before his gaze the Nexus Stone.

The jewel was emitting a deep sickly emerald glow, stronger then before and bathing the chamber in its light. A shaft of stronger light lanced forth from its centre and moved across the floor. Slowly but surely it moved until it highlighted the centre of the chamber in the sight of the five head like devices.

In the centre of the room, perhaps responding to the light and presence of the Nexus Stone, the decorative pattern peeled away from its epicentre forming a circular hole directly in the middle. Out of this hole rose a pedestal, no wider then a man's waist with a slanted top surface facing towards the entrance. There was just enough space in this surface to have a slot, purposely shaped like the Nexus Stone. The light from the stone itself was directing itself towards this very spot.

"Is this it?" Kain asked without realising he was speaking. "Which soul inside this stone is calling me here?"


	33. 32 Raziel Price of the Dollmaker

The body had lain in a shallow grave, a mere ditch with a top layer of dirt and grass to cover the putrefying corpse. Perhaps the man had been murdered by bandits on the northern road, robbed of all his valuables and then deposed of with a few spadesfuls of earth to cover his body. Whoever his murderers might have been they would have been very surprised when the grave they had gone to the trouble of digging for him began to shake and quiver.

The corpse within brushed aside its meagre current of dirt and hungry worms, lurching up into a sitting position. The maggots and crawlers living inside its flesh dropped free from the body, seeking sustenance and sanctuary elsewhere.

With a lurching step the dead body climbed up out of the earth and as it did so, it changed. Its rotten skin began to reform and change colour from a putrefied brown to royal blue. Fingers dropped away, replaced by talons that grew out of the bone. Two great flaps of blue membranous skin flowed out from the shoulder blades and finally, completing the transformation, came wrappings around the arms and a woven drape covering the shoulders and over the face to the nose.

Raziel shook his body free of mud and stood up properly, looking around with quick darting motions. The moon was high in the sky, full and bright casting long dark shadows over the ground and between the trees. To the south he could just see in the distance the twinkling fire lights that marked the outskirts of the city of Willendorf. He was glad to see the back of it now, the tales of his glory were simply that; tales delegated to the category of historical fiction. He wondered if it had ever been as grand as the legends and folklore said, or if that too was a self serving rewriting of their history.

But he had other concerns how because them. He had to move quickly now. He had only managed to catch a brief glimpse of the scouts map before events had become too quick for further study and if he knew eastern Nosgoth's general geography right, the lake of lost souls lay some way to the north west. It was an isolated region, devoid of any civilisation apart from a few scattered settlements. In Nosgoth's corrupted future, the region had been a salt flat full of peat bogs and stagnant lakes of sulphurous water. Raziel was not anxious to see what it would be like in this era.

The blue wraith headed north as fast as he could go, darting through the tall pine trees and shrubs. The ground was still ankle deep in snow and squelched with moisture with each step. In places the ground was so sodden that Raziel found it quicker to leap from the tops of jutting rocks to others to avoid them.

It began to snow again, lightly this time, when he came across the trail. It was little more than a hunter's track, not a proper road at all but still it had the imprints from many horses hooves and the tracks were freshly turned, not twenty minutes old as they had not yet been covered by snow. The hoof prints were also quite deep, meaning the horses carried heavy armoured men that weighed them down.

Raziel only needed a cursory glance to know he had stumbled across the trail they had left in their haste to escape him or to get to the dollmaker in time to lick his boots. The space between prints seemed to suggest they were travelling at a gallop, dangerous in the forest.

.

**_"The dollmaker's sycophantic king had wasted no time in taking his own daughter to be sacrificed to appease his master. The tracks lead far off towards the north as a furious pace. What dark fears of retribution were running through his mind if he was prepared to hand over his own offspring? " _**

.

Raziel wondered if perhaps, if the dollmakers tithing of royal princess' had been going on for as long as Alicia had claimed, the king had merely fathered a daughter simply to fulfil his quota when the time came.

.

**_"Perhaps my path was reckless, but recovering the sword was of paramount importance."_**

.

The track led on further down into the forest, into a deep ravine that led directly northwest. The trees were very thick in there and the shadows were almost pitch black, especially with the snow in contrast around them. Raziel frowned with a supercilious expression, amused at the chase.

.

**_"...and the princess if possible." _**

.

She had done nothing in his mind to deserve being saved, having been as concerned with preserving her own skin as much as the rest of her family, but still saving her might upset and off balance this dollmaker long enough for him to reclaim the Soul Reaver from his undeserving grasp.

Quickly the blue wraith took off into the trees, keeping to the shadows as much possible at the pace he set. Once or twice a startled deer pranced out of his way or a black bird took off from a nearby tree but the further north he went, the less animal life he sensed around him. He felt as if he were stepping into one other place, like Nosgoth and yet not at the same time, a caricature of the world or a parody. It was a difficult sensation and a hard one for him to understand.

His mind was awash with the mystery of it all. Some element of time travel had to be involved in order for the Soul Reaver to be both in the hands of the Sarafan lord and in the Dollmaker but not an instance of it he knew of. Perhaps it was yet to come?

Raziel ran through his memories of Kain's stories quickly, trying to find reference. Where had Kain said he had first discovered the Soul Reaver? That had been one of his favourite stories to boast on. It had been inside Avernus cathedral, placed in a secret room.

That made Raziel slow his pace a little, frowning in thought. Simply placed there for Kain to find, the Reaver? The blade Kain had been destined to wield as the Scion of Balance? Just left there? Discarded like a common household tool?

Given what he knew of its history, its importance and the factions interested in turning it to their advantage... Raziel knew that for Kain to just stumble across it was an absurdity.

That only made recovering the Reaver from Elzeivr all the more urgent.

.

**_"The name kept ringing inside my head, a distraction that might prove fatal if I let it continue. 'Elzevir.' If only I could remember from whence I had heard that name before." _**

.

It had to be an obscure thing for him to overlook it no matter how hard he tried to place it within his own mind. If he could only remember then it might give him some foreknowledge of what to expect, arm him with a means of predicting the dollmaker's powers and means of self defence.

The tracks led on, deeper into the ravine and occasionally Raziel lost track of them amidst the undergrowth. The track was made of game and the hunters that trailed them so it meandered back and forth across ridge a goodly way.

At one point Raziel came across a ridge with a drop down to collection of rocks far below. Sprawled upon those rocks were the limp and prone bodies of a horse and rider. The man wore the white armour of the Willendorf militia and the horse was draped with banners displaying the lion crest. Crows and other carrion birds had already begun their feast, nudging each other out of the way of the best bits with a good deal of flapping.

They must have misplaced their feet on the ledge and fallen to their deaths and their king had been too busy attempting to get where he was going to bother with retrieving the corpses.

He ought to have taken the time, Raziel thought. Now he had firm proof that he was on the right trail.

In the event he did not have the go very much further. At the bottom of the ravine, directly in the centre, was a large clearing. Raziel could see it from a distance through the trees.

He slowed his approach and slide into the darkness of the bushes, coming to a stop and observing. The space seemed devoid of any plant life at all, no shrubs or grasses. The ground appeared diseased, a sick sooty black with an inert feel to it. The clearing was perhaps about thirty feet in diameter and perfectly round, a circle with trees not encroaching beyond that invisible border.

What really gave Raziel a start were the dolls. He almost walked right into one of them before he saw it and took a startled step backwards, his vision panning out to take in the sight.

There were perhaps dozens of them, mannequins and toys of nearly every size and shape. Some looked new with fancy petticoats and others looked as if they had been crudely put together with bits of soiled clothe. A few had faces made of porcelain with glass eyes but most were simple stitched together and stuffed with wool.

Each one was nailed to the trees surrounding the clearing, arms spread as if crucified and all turned in to look towards the centre.

They were only toys but the sense of despair and pain in their vacant stares as so palpable Raziel would almost have believed they were alive.

.

**_"The clearing was ominous enough without the symbols of an occult presence. I had to be wary."_**

.

Directly in the centre of the clearing was his prey, the horsemen from Willendorf, the moonlight gleaming off their armour. They sat astride their mounts in a semi circle and the king was at their head. He was off his horse, holding its reins in one hand. With the other he held his daughter, forcing her down onto her knees in the dirt.

Alicia had been stripped of all but the barest of clothing and even from this distance Raziel could see the large purpling bruise developing across the left hand side of her face. Despite her state she was struggling to get up but her father held her by her hair, keeping her down.

"Stay on your knees woman." He told her in a flat voice. Raziel began to creep around the edge of the clearing amidst the trees, going slow as to not make the slightest amount of noise. If he could position himself just right he could launch himself from the shadows and not give them time to react.

Alicia turned her head to glare up at her father, her face contorted into an angry snarl and eyes filled with angry hatred.

The king returned her gaze with no emotion.

"This is for all of Willendorf." He said as if in reply, his voice that same deadpan.

"For all of Willendorf..." A high pitched nasal voice repeated, seemingly out of the air itself. Raziel froze and crouched low instinctively. The king's face turned ashen and he looked around, fear clear in his eyes. All his men on their horses shifted backwards, hands going to the hilts of the swords at their sides.

Raziel was the first to spot it, drifting up across the tops of the trees on the far side of the clearing. Even from a distance he could tell what it was, silhouetted against the moon. Another piper, almost identical to the others he had seen only with, once again, a different arrangement of spikes jutting out from the top of its skull.

It danced across the forest tree tops, its song echoing on the cold night air hauntingly. The tune it played on its bone pipe was a mocking melody, a subtle insult as if the notes themselves were laughing at all those assembled here.

It leapt from the top of the trees, a huge impossible jump, and landed without even the sound of a footstep directly in front of the king no more than four feet away.

The king took a frightened step backwards and his armour began to clatter loudly as he trembled. The piper did not advance on him or the bound princess but rather spread both arms out wide as far as they would go. As it did so, a second form appeared before it; fading softly into being.

Raziel blinked at the sight. It was a short, stubby man with pallid white skin that seemed its natural colour. His hair was sparse on top but also long, tied back into three ponytails. Its style and its colour, a bright ridiculous orange, gave the man the appearance of a gothic clown.

His clothing did little to distract from the comparison. His shirt and cloak were green, the cloak a far darker shade and his pants were a dark violet. The shoes on his feet seemed too big for his feet.

His face though was anything but clownish. He had beady black eyes and a bent hawkish nose. It made his features almost skull like.

"I've heard that speech so many times now." The man said, that same nasal voice coming from his lips. The king stared at him in wide eyes horror. "It's getting boring."

So this was Elzevir was it, Raziel wondered. The dollmaker who reduced Willendorf to a mockery of its former self? The king's terrified expression supposed it could be no one else.

At that moment the little man turned to look over the rest of the Willendorf guard and Raziel saw that he was carrying something in his left hand.

A sword; a two handed claymore that was far too big for him to wield effectively. One sight of the serpentine blade however was enough.

.

**_"He had the sword, unmistakable and instantly recognisable for the Soul Reaver; not just for its visage but for the powerful sense of vertigo that seemed to bend the very air around me at its sight. Seeing it, I suddenly had a moment of clarity. This sword, the blade in the little man's hand, was the blade that I had helped re-forge after it had been broken in the battle between a fledgling Kain and William the Just."_**

**_._**

The world around Raziel seemed to flutter slightly, that same distortion caused by the paradox of his being in two places at the same time. Nobody else seemed to notice it. Raziel crouched there low, his mind racing to obvious conclusions.

The Reaver had first been in the keeping of Janos Audron, before being stolen by the Sarafan. During the confrontation at the stronghold Kain had claimed it and used it until it had drawn in the wraith's soul in the Citadel.

After that Kain had lost the blade to Raziel-Divus, who delivered it to Moebius who in turn gave it to William the Just. Armed with the Reaver blade the human king had faced Kain and been struck down and the Reaver broken in half, altering history.

The shattered pieces of the sword had been placed in his mausoleum where Raziel had found him and inadvertently repaired the sword.

After that the sword had laid there on the sarcophagus until after the fall of the Pillars, after which it must had been claimed by the dollmaker who had come like raider to plunder the broken tomb.

And that, Raziel realised, meant that at some point the blade he saw would be placed in Avernus Cathedral for the younger Kain to find. Trying to follow the back and forth trail the sword had lead made his head spin.

"Dollmaker, you have brought you the princess as we agreed."The king said after a moment of terrified silence. Elzevir looked down at Alicia who stared up at him with sudden genuine terror.

"Yes yes and isn't she a lovely one?" The dollmaker asked, tilting forward to look at her as a man might admire something in a shop window. His oily smile was out of place on his skeletal face.

"She may even be the pride of my collection." He commented with some interested, looking her over. Alicia shrank away from him, eyes wide and her face white. She tried to run but the king held her steady and facing forward, unable to escape.

Elzevir tapped one finger to his chin and then shook his head.

"But..." He sighed. The king looked up in alarm.

"But!" He repeated. "But what?"

Elzevir rocked back on his heels and cocked his head to one side, an eye looking up towards the sky.

"By tradition, the appointed collection time has always been at precisely midnight has it not?" He asked. When the king did not immediately reply, the dollmaker turned to look at his accompanying Piper. "What time do you make it?" He asked the creature.

The piper looked at the moon in the sky, its skin peeling back even more from over its hideous mouth.

"Five minutes past, master." It replied in a raspy voice. Elzevir nodded as if he already knew.

"Oh dear..." The little man breathed, tapping the tips of his fingers along the Reaver's hilt in a jaunty tune.

"Five minutes!" The king burst out, his voice edging on hysterical. In that moment Raziel held as much contempt for the man as Alicia did. Did not the man see that the dollmaker had run out of need for him?

Elzevir smiled at him and the smile was one of vicious satisfaction.

"The Ottmar's have been good to me, supplying so many souls of so many maidens without so much as a raised a finger in protest." He paused to look annoyed. "With the obvious exception of that first one." Then he brushed off his momentary annoyance.

"But my collection has grown large enough, I think." Elzevir concluded, reaching out to pat Alicia on the top of the head. She flinched back from him with a whimper. "I may be avaricious but I have limits to my greed."

The Willendorf men backed their horses up and looked ready to abandon their king and bolt, quite a sensible impulse Raziel thought.

"What are you saying..?" The king asked his voice no more than a harsh whisper. Elzevir turned his back on the king and held up his free hand

"I simply have no more use for a defunct royal family past its prime." He said with finality and clicked his fingers. Instantly the Piper had its instrument to its lips and was playing a song before even Raziel could react.

The king let go of his daughter with a hoarse cry and stumbled backwards, trying to reach his horse. Even if he had it would have been too late. The man ought to have never come here in the first place. The ground beneath their feet boiled and writhed, breaking open wetly. Out of the cracks came bugs, hundreds of insects of all kings. There were worms and grubs, maggots and ants, spiders and centipedes. Entranced by the song of the piper the insects surged up over the men and their horses, slithering and crawling with a furious speed. The horses were dragged down instantly, toppling their doomed riders into the mass to be swallowed up.

The king stayed on his feet, for a moment, before the insects covered him. He tried to scream but the bugs simply poured down his mouth and he fell.

Elzevir watched the writhing bug covered shapes with a pleased smile over his shoulder. One by one the men and their horses both were pulled down, disappearing into the earth itself as if they were water absorbed after a rainfall.

Within the space of three minutes there wasn't a sign of them left at all. Alicia stared at the spot where her father had stood only a moment ago, inhumane terror lit large on her face. She snapped back to look at the dollmaker, who was approaching her.

She screamed in horror and tried to run, but Elzevir reached out and laid a hand upon her forehead.

"Scchhh, now child. It will all be over soon." He said and she stopped rigid, her body stiffening for a moment. Then she relaxed and her face became neutral and expressionless, her eyes unseeing. She just stood there like an inert statue.

By now, Raziel had seen enough and heard enough. He burst from cover, rearing an arm back and focusing his mind. Throwing his arm forward and sent a telekinetic bolt forward that hit the Piper in the face dead on and sent it staggering backwards, nearly losing its footing.

Elzevir turned, without apparent surprise, to regard the oncoming wraith.

"Ah so this must be the blue devil that caused so much distribution." He said and then frowned in disapproval. "My my, aren't you the ugly one?"


	34. 33 Kain Twisted Metal

Kain found himself halfway across the chamber towards the pedestal before he was even aware of his own bodies motion. He blinked and forced himself to stop, a strange dislocation affect in his mind. From his perspective one second he had been at the door and the next he was almost to the centre of the room. The five bronze heads around him loomed up large, the light from the Nexus Stone's glow reflecting off of their polished surfaces. The entire chamber seemed to be holding its breath, as if the moment it had waited for was about to transpire.

Kain kept his eyes locked on the pedestal before him the beam of light from the stone urging him onwards towards it. The pull was so strong Kain felt as if the Stone might leap out of his grip and go flying there all by itself. It will was palpable and clear.

A hand caught his arm and glancing back he saw Ewoden standing there, brows brought together in a grim frown.

"Is this wise?" He asked, eyes casting back and forth looking at each of the heads around them with apprehension. "We have no idea what this..." Then his eyes moved to the centre pedestal. "...this device can do."

That was perfectly true, Kain supposed. He could no more understand this room and its intertwining device then the purpose and nature of the stone in his hand. It was of a technology and philosophy totally alien to him. There was now no doubt in his mind that this is where the Stone had been created and to here, it, or some force within, had directed him. The sensation was similar to the pull he had felt when he had come into direct sight of one of Ba'al's tablets of prophecy although far more distinctly, as if it were his own will and not another's super imposed upon his.

"I feel I must take the risk." He said and Ewoden, with a somewhat surprised expression, let his arm drop from Kain's arm. The vampire looked over at the pedestal again. "There is some purpose to this stone. It directed me here."

With very slow footsteps he began to move towards centre of the room once more.

"It wanted to be here." He breathed. Reaching the pedestal, he lifted the stone up and then brought it forward. "It wants to be unlocked."

The Nexus Stone slid into its slot with a loud satisfying clunking noise. There was a moment of silence, dragging on and on seemingly forever.

.

**_"I placed the stone into its rightful place with a deepening sense of anticipation. Something momentous was about to happen, an event that might have a great significance as to either allow my triumph or send me plummeting into damnation. It was time to see which." _**

.

With a series of clicks and whirs four metallic arms like insect legs slide out of the pedestal and drags the Nexus Stone down further into the surface. Building slowly, there was a deep rumbling noise, ascending to a vibration that had the metal plates the room was made from rattling. When that noise reached its crescendo the jewel in the centre of the Hylden artefact began to glow, bursting forth with a light so intense Kain had to cover his eyes with one hand.

Watching through the gaps between his talons, Kain watched the pincers holding the stone dig into the space between the jewel and the metallic decoration around it. Slowly these pincers began to pull backwards, tugging at the ornament.

Then with a loud crack the metal slid to either side as the stone was freed of its confines. In that single instance, whatever restraints that held the stone were removed. The result was a naked display of tremendous force burst forth from such a confined space.

Kain and Ewoden were both sent flying by the shockwave, crashing to the far wall with a sickening crunch each. Ezekiel, who was standing by the door, was merely knocked off his feet.

One by one, the metallic statues of the heads lining the walls let off a metallic groan and an intense grinding sound. The emerald green eyes were moving, inch by agonised inch moving down until they locked eyes directly onto the stone.

The metal of their faces shifted as if it were living flesh, each of the five heads adopted a different expression. One looked angry, another face and a third even jubilant. Their eyes all began to glow with that same intense light came from the stone itself, blinding and piercing.

"Lord in heaven..." Ezekiel breathed, wisely staying down and covering his head. Kain slid to the floor from the dent he had made in the wall and looked up, his hair bellowing around him as if caught in a wind he could not feel on his skin.

Then the wails began, a symphony of agonised cries that melded together into a song of torment and pain. Physical and mental anguish were notes to which the music played. Accompanying the chorus of maddened screams came a swirling mist, a deep neon green vortex that spiralled up out of the stone until it seemed to fill the entire cavern. As Kain stared he saw that the mist was not cloud at all but rather made up of hundreds... no... thousands... millions of luminous skulls that screams in agony.

Staring at the he recalled the tall he had had to recreate to enter the chamber and realised that he was seeing, unleashed, the souls of the Hylden that had been forced into the artefact in order to make it. There sheer amount of them was overwhelming and their collective pain was obvious and Kain felt himself reacting in sympathy despite himself. Could this be that same vortex he thought he had experienced when falling from Fanum-Divus back to Nosgoth?

Out of the vortex, a face seemed to come into place; made up of these tormented souls all moving together and compelled to form that shape. It came into being slowly, twisting back and forth as it had to fight its way free of something.

When the image became distinct, the face made up of swirling souls was that same noble face of the Hylden nobleman depicted through these underground ruins. But this was no still image, but an animated face that looked down upon him with living eyes.

There was some deep wisdom to that face, a wide intellect that was reflected in expression and posture.

"Kain!" The face said, the morphing lips moving not entirely in sync to the words. That voice was terrible, not for its tone or inflections but rather for the echoes of a millions despairing voices behind it. "I bid you welcome to this time and place, Scion of Balance."

Kain stared at the disembodied head for a moment and then stood back up to his feet.

"I am heartened indeed that, despite the time difference between us, we have this opportunity to speak." The ghostly visage added.

The vampire took a moment to regain his composure. Ewoden meanwhile had remained where he saw, eyes wide in stunned terror.

"Who are you?" Kain asked. The face tilted itself up proudly in response.

"I am called Ashar." It said. "I am the last rightful king of the Hylden people. It was I who crafted the Nexus Stone you have brought here."

That took a moment for Kain to absorb but the face went on.

"You knew my son as one of your worst enemies, the dark Unspoken given the name Hash'ak'gik." Then, seemingly to want to throw Kain completely off balance it added; "You knew my granddaughter only as a mysterious soothsayer dubbed, the Seer."

Kain was left stupefied for at least ten seconds. The implications of that claim left him feeling a little light headed. The Seer was the daughter of the Hylden General or the Sarafan Lord? And Raziel had trusted her?

"We have much to speak off but I fear little time." Ashar said quite urgently, catching his attention once more. "Your enemies move against you and Nosgoth's fate lies precariously in the balance." He was about to say something else but the face blinked and looked from around the chamber, seeing Kain, Ewoden and the visibly startled Ezekiel.

"Where is the wraith?" The king asked in some evident surprise. "I do not see him."

Once more Kain was surprised but hide his confusion this time behind a frown of irritation.

"Raziel? Was he supposed to be here?" He asked, amused to be talking to a disembodied face this way. It had a certain amount of perplexing surrealism to it.

"What I have to tell you involves him as well." Ashar said, looking annoyed but it past and the swirling souls making up his face smoothed into a calm determination. Or at least they seemed to at first. Kain's frown deepened as he saw that the souls making up this vision were beginning to deviate away and struggle from their assigned course with more and more urgency. The face began to lose its defined outline but Ashar himself seemed not to notice, he kept right on talking.

"But for the moment you are..." His words were cut off. This time he had to notice the deviation. The ghostly manifestations of the entrapped souls were tearing themselves away from the vortex with tremendous force.

.

**_"I did not fully understand the mechanisms behind this strange event but clearly something had gone wrong. The sensation of the air around me turned hostile." _**

.

Ashar's face as it disintegrated, looked alarmed and stunned, incredulous at such an event as such time.

"No! What are you doing!" He demanded but got no reply. The souls that made up his avatar burst out like an explosion and Kain threw himself to the ground to keep from getting in their way.

From the floor Kain watched in stunned awe as the souls surged overheard, bursting out of the chamber door and into the room beyond. There the sprits surged around like a horde of angry insects, flittering this way and that confused and directionless. The vortex of souls over the Nexus Stone was still open but the spirits Ashar had used to compose his avatar were now free.

But their freedom did not seem to do them any good for they still screamed and writhed in their agony, twisting in upon themselves.

Then they seemed to do the only thing they could do, find a body to inhabit. Perhaps after being so long a disembodied wraith with no sensation other then torment they were unwilling to undergo it anymore.

.

**_"A vortex of confined souls, tormenting and screaming, surged out of their prison and to the only bodies capable of receiving them; the suits of Sarafan armour Malek had so proudly placed on display."_**

**_._**

Only a few slipped down to slide into the waiting metallic vessels as if scouts for the advancing horde. Then they all came down, a wave of screeching entities that desperately sought out a suit of armour to call home. Kain watched them one by one pass into the armour and disappear.

Even as they entered, the Sarafan armouries began to twist and writhe with a life of their own. Backs arched wildly and arms twitched in every direction.

Kain stared at them. Malek would be appalled to see them so willingly jump into such unfeeling bodies when he had been condemned to it.

Then as the Hylden spirits settled into their new bodies the armours began to change. Their metallic plates began to elongate with a low grinding noise, loud from so many at once. The helmets seemed to stretch to a a Hylden head that wasn't there and spikes slide out from the shoulders and curved back like a demons arrangement. Where there were gaps in their armour there blazed forth a pulsing neon green light as if the soul itself gave the body substance.

Ewoden and Ezekiel backed off from the door as the multitude of possessed armours began to lurch around, morphing as they walked into a semi Hylden visage. The Sarafan armour had been styled to be iconic of angelic artistry and now it was being twisted into its antithesis. These ghouls, these walking automatons, all stumbled back and forth as if trying to get their bearings and remember what it was like to walk. Not all of the suits of armour had been possessed, perhaps a third of them with more still standing vacant and uncorrupted.

"No more, no more!" One of them said as it staggered to its feet and glared around; its voice nasal and echoing as if from down a long pipe.

"No more torment!" Another added. Almost as one they all turned to angrily and aggressively face one of their own, who was just now standing up. This one was different from the others, being a good head and shoulder taller and broader. The main visible different were the pair of curving goat horns on either side of the helmet.

The possessed armour looked around at the hostility around it, apprehensively

"You fools!" It cursed them and Kain recognised the voice of Ashar. The king of the Hylden had been brought with them after his people had taken their opportunity to escape. "I told you what was involved when we began!" He said and pointed with the finger of the gauntlet that made up his hand in a wide arch around them. "You all agreed!"

The nearest of the other possessed armours slapped his hand away with a snarl of hate.

"You were the eye of the storm!" It snapped at the king.

"You did not feel the winds of madness tearing through you, without pause!" The one next to it accused, reaching down to its side and drawing out the Sarafan blade holstered there. In its grip the blade altered, becoming jagged and demonic with a serrated edge.

"Never ceasing, never stopping!" Others drew axes or bows, the same transformation overtaking those weapons as well.

"Never with an ounce of mercy!" As one they began to advance on Ashar, slowly but with deliberate intent. Kain would have been content to just watch, but those nearest him and the others took notice of their presence. They turned off from Ashar and began to make their way towards him. Kain stiffened and quickly got to his feet.

"We'll not go back!" Another Hylden armour snarled. "We'll not be used again!"

Ashar looked around quickly perhaps for a way to escape, taking a step backwards his armour body clanking.

"You'll doom our entire world!" He accused them all. The decree did not seem to both the others in the slightest.

"Then let it be doomed!"

Their slow march became a rush and Ashar vanished from Kain's sight behind the body of an automaton as it charged him. It lunged at the vampire with its jagged axe swinging down. Kain caught the hand that held the weapon and held it at bay before stabbing his talons into its helmet. He punctured the metal and destroyed its makeshift head. The Hylden soul inside did not feel the pain as its body was artificial and kept on pushing trying to bring the axe down. Kain smashed his knee into its abdomen and then, when it staggered back he brought the talons of both hands across and sliced it in half.

Before he could react, a second stabbed at him with a sword. Dodging back he narrowly missed being stabbed through the gut with it, although its tip scoured a line across his belly. As the Hylden armour carried on past, Kain grabbed it by the back of its chest plate and tore it free leaving a giant hole through its centre. Without that structural support the automaton collapsed in on itself.

A blur of red shot past him with a roar and Kain saw just in time Ewoden tackle two who were trying to flank him. In full Lycanthrope form the emissary tore into them with his claws sending fragments of metal flying.

The door was a narrow opening and if circumstances were different Kain and Ewoden might have been able to hold it, but there were simply too many of these possessed suits and they seemed not to care about how many of their number they lost. Their time kept imprisoned inside the Nexus Stone had robbed them of even a sense of self preservation. They knew nothing but pain and release.

With no regard for the safety of their comrades and fellows they began to surge into their defences, stabbing and clawing. With too many weapons to fend off Kain had to keep retreating step by step away from them. Ewoden as well, despite his advantage of size and momentum, was being overwhelmed.

Two of them shot past Ewoden, breaking through his attempt to hold them back. Kain tensed ready to spring but they ignored him and ran past. Half turning Kain saw their intended target, the defenceless old man who had wisely gone to the back of the chamber to stay out of the way. Ezekiel saw them rush at him with wide astonished eyes.

Acting quickly Kain reached out and grabbed one of them in the grip of a powerful telekinetic grasp and hurled it across the room to smash into pieces He turned to try and grab the second but he was too late. It was already upon the old man, bringing its sword up.

"No!" Ezekiel called out. "It's not time yet!" With surprising speed the old man dove out of the way but he was not quite quick enough. The blade caught him, slicing its tip down through his exposed right arm.

.

**_"There was no gap between the pain and the injury inflicted an instantaneous response. I could even feel the blade lance through his flesh as if it were my own. My chest throbbed in response, a powerful sensation of weakness flooding through me again. All strength fled from my body almost instantly."_**

.

Kain clutched at the sudden stigmata wound that had opened precisely where the old man had been cut. He stared at it in mute incomprehension. How was this possible?

Everything around him seemed to slow down and drop away, the world fading slowly with sounds and images left behind as if he had kept on walking and they had stayed put. Soon even the mystery of that strange event faded, for he was unable to grasp anything in a mind so weak.

His body was not his own, that terrible draining weakness surging through him again. There was no pain this time but it was somehow worse, as if life itself were being emptied out of him like water down a drain.

.

**_"My mild whirled; overcome by enemies and weakness from within... my only option was a humiliating retreat."_**

**_._**

It was the only thing he could do. Reaching inside himself for the little energy he had in reserve he used that to consume himself with a translocation spell, disappearing from the scene of battle and fleeing to whatever relatively safety his fragmented mind could find.


	35. 34 Raziel Lost

Raziel intended to end it quickly, with one blow if possible. He ran at the little balding man, right arm flourishing artfully with the wraith blade leaving trails of light in its wake. The Dollmaker sighted the sword and his eyes widened slightly in alarm. With quick moves that belied his stocky and short frame he brought his own Reaver, the physical sword, up to block the attack.

The two swords meet in mid air and the impact seemed to ripple the air, the world distorting around them as the paradoxical affect was amplified by the two blades proximity. Raziel perhaps was the only one who felt the distortion but he braced himself and pushed through it grimly; trying to force Elzevir to drop the sword or fall.

Suddenly the dollmaker's Piper was there, launching a flying kick at the blue wraith. Seeing the attack coming at the last minute Raziel broke off his attack and swung to one side. The creature put itself between the wraith and its master, pipe held to its lips in an instant ready to play its deadly song.

"I know better than this." Elzevir remarked as if to himself, pausing to dust off his clothes with one hand. He gestured and the piper started forward, blocking Raziel from attempting to rush around him to get to the dollmaker. Thus relieved of pressure, Elzevir backed off with a casual walk. He strode up to the princess, who stood there calm and serene apparently not seeing anything of what was happening around her.

"Come my dear girl." The little man told her, taking her by the hand. Alicia did not resist and let him lead her away. As they walked, the dollmaker lifted the Reaver blade before him and whipped its tip overhead in an arch. Perhaps acting as a conduit and amplify for his own magic, the sword began to emit a baleful white glow as it cleaved the air. The arch it which it travelled glowed in response, opening a circular hole seemingly in the insubstantial air itself.

With the princess holding his hand Elzevir stepped through and vanished from sight.

"Alicia don't!" Raziel called out, arm outstretched imploringly. The princess turned her heard slightly as she passed through but there was not understanding in her eyes. Her gaze was black and emotionless as she vanished through the closing porthole.

.

**_"My shouted warning fell on deaf ears; or perhaps more accurately it fell on inert ears. The princess' mind was completely ensnared and I could no more reach her calling from across the field than I would screaming into her ear. She was lost." _**

**_._**

The rippling distorting effect of the two swords close proximity faded away with their departure but Raziel paid it no mind.

The blue wraith felt a surging gut wrench tear through him at the fate he knew for certain the princess would now endure. Her scheme to use him to escape her terrible end had failed and she was gone. He had felt no bound or even a liking for her but her loss was a waste all the same.

"Enough of my kin have encountered you for me to know you now." The piper remarked to him, lowering its instrument so it could speak without the obstruction. Raziel turned to glare at the creature over his shoulder; eyes narrowing. It was looking back at him, lips pulled back into a smile so wide that bone showed.

"Raziel, the fallen servant." It stated as if declaring the blue wraith guilty of some crime. Raziel stared it down before turning to confront it fully.

"Since we're in a revealing type of mode..." He began, body tensing and ready to spring at a moment's notice. "Why don't I ask what an Archon is doing shoved in a corporeal form and serving some demented human?"

The Piper did not appear overly surprised that its true nature had been guessed. It merely straightened its back and hopped up, a little jovially, onto one leg. Its pipe held level to the left hand side of its face mere inches from being blown.

"The master serves the Wheel as much as we do." It said, making no attempt to deny its true identity. "We are merely on assignment."

Raziel stared at the creature for a long moment and then his shoulders began to shake. His head lowered and a deep throaty chuckle began to escape him. Then with a roar of mirth he tilted his back and laughed up to the sky, slapping one hand to his forehead.

The piper hesitated, not expecting this response.

"That has to be one of the funniest thing I've ever heard!" The blue wraith declared, still laughing uproariously. "My former master sells his minions out like common mercenaries? The supposed creator of life!"

He swung his arms down and in that instant the wraith blade flourished into being, burning intently with hunger.

"It's hilarious!" He cried and ran at the Piper. He crossed the distance between them in a split second, his ethereal blade slashing up across the creature's front. The piper dodged but a fraction of a second too late. As it danced backwards, a vertical cut opened up from its naval to the tip of its chin, a bloodless jagged wound exposing a fleshy interior devoid of blood.

Clutching one hand to the wound, the Piper, leapt back out of the reach of the wraith blade. Its impossibly long leap took it halfway across the clearing.

Raziel levelled his blade and charged again, hoping to make it to the thing before it could mount a counter attack.

With a flourish the Piper brought its instrument to its lips and began to play, long fingers playing up and down in a rapid pattern.

This song was different from all the others. No insects exploded from the ground to envelop him, no wild animals summoned to its aide. The sound seemed to be commanded, a marshal tune one might play while an army was marching.

Apprehension filling him, Raziel slid to a stop in the mud and tensed, wraith blade ready by his side. The air around him seemed to be growing colder as the song rose in pitch. Ice began to form on the ground at his feet, a crust over the scummy wet soil.

Accompanying the song there came known another sound, a higher pitched noise not at all in accompaniment to the music and providing a disturbing echo. The noise was familiar.

.

**_"I knew that sound all well. The spectral realm was filled with such sounds, the noise of lost souls wandering in perpetual agony." _**

.

Even so, when the dolls nailed to the trees around them began to move it took Raziel aback. His gaze darted from right to left, seeing the toys twitched and writhe as if in agony. Their blank gazes did not change but their eyes seemed to glow a bright neon blue that stood out in the twilight. Voices echoed from all around them, coming Raziel realised in mute horror, from the mouths of the dolls themselves.

"Mommy!"One of them cried in despair and the voice was that of a young child.

"No please don't!" Another begged, the voice unmistakably a young woman, no older then perhaps sixteen.

"I just want to go home!" This time it was a boys voice piped up, tinged with fear and terror. The chorus of voices continues and amongst them all nowhere did Raziel hear the voice of an elder.

"No... no!" The louder, closer, voice of Ariel echoed in his mind. Through his senses she could see all that was going on and seemed to recoil from it as it caused her physical agony.

"It's too horrible!" She almost screamed. Glancing to his left, he could faintly make out her ghostly image; hands clutched to her face in tormented revulsion. Her face was corrupted, one have a skull and twisted by her dismay.

"Ariel?" He asked of her. "What is this?"

Her gaze was fixed upon the dolls all around them and she did not avert her eye.

"Can't you feel it?" She asked of him, voice trembling. "I can hear them screaming out for their mothers! Even as their souls are ripped out of them!"

Raziel made the mental connection and it left him feeling numb.

"Children?" He asked in a small voice. Ariel did not need to give any sign of confirmation for him to know it was true.

"I had thought I could withstand any plea after so long at the pillars!" Her voice was just a whisper, sounding hoarse despite her lack of an actual throat to be hoarse with. "That I was numb to the emotional pleas of the world around me!" Her voice began to rise up into a desperate wail. "But I can't stand their screaming!"

With that, she fled delving as far into his essence she could go.

.

**_"Ariel had retreated to the darkest depths of my soul to shield herself from that terrible reality that had shaken her so much. While I did not like how bereft of composure she had become the shock would ultimately do her some good, prod her out of the self imposed guilty silence she had been imposing upon herself since Fanum-Divus."_**

.

After imprisonment for so long, haunting the pillars and her efforts to keep him sane through his own captivity inside the Reaver blade Ariel had developed a tougher outer shell of indifference and neutrality to the plights of the world around her. It was the only way she had been able to keep her mind intact. But she was not invulnerable and still human.

Raziel shielded her as best he could from the dolls around them, crying out with the pain of lost and stolen children; trapped for perhaps dozens of generations going back to when Elziver first began tormenting the Willendorf realm.

.

**_"But for now I had others concerns. The dollmaker still had both the sword and the girl and he could not have gone far. No doubt he had retreated back to his lair, an island in the middle of the aptly named Lake of Lost souls." _**

.

The longer he lingered here, the more time the dollmaker would have to fortify his own position in preparation.

Raziel had to abandon plans of the future for the immediate situation when two of the dolls burst from the trees, flying at him like a projectile. They soared through the air, screaming in agony as they came. The piper's song carried on intently as they flew, seemingly controlling their flight path with the notes of his music.

Leaping away, Raziel back flipped to avoid them. The two dolls came down on the spot where he had been a mere moment ago and simultaneously they detonated.

The sensation and sound of their explosion was indescribable. When those vessels burst the captive spirits within burst with them, showering their energies out into the ether and the personalities that had once been were lost as well. The shockwave that abandoned the blast was bad enough, knocking him back several feet but the assault on his senses was worse. It was like a deadening, like he had just been witness to something real being made into a vacuum of existence. Even the Elder did not destroy souls, merely sap them dry before casting them out again. This act was evil for there was no other word in any language Raziel knew to describe it.

He stood there, transfixed staring at the blackened hole the explosion had left in the ground; numbly unsure of whether he could believe his senses. Slowly his mind and reason returned and realising what had happened, his ire rose and blood began to boil.

With a roar he dug his heels into the ground and ran at the Piper, summoning the wraith blade.

The creature saw him coming and began to furiously play on its instrument, the dolls from all around the clearing began to tear themselves from their bindings.

One by one they launched themselves at him, wailing in despair and hopelessness. Raziel forced himself to tune it up, ramming his consciousness into the only state that could survive this ordeal; that of the berserker.

He kept on running with a roar of outrage breaking the night, darting right and left as the dolls flew at him of their enforced kamikaze mission.

As they exploded behind him the sensation of deadening passed through him and inside his soul, Ariel quivered each time in response. That only served to enrage him more and his pace quickened, turning from a run into a full charge.

The piper's eyes widened in alarm and its tune became frenzied and almost maddened. The dolls nearly tore the trees with them as their mass majority flew up into the air at its command, surging down at him in swarm of screaming torment.

Their combined screams broke through his berserker state of mind causing him to flinch with each step but he kept on running anyway.

The explosions began not long after that, detonation after horrible detonation. Each one was a gut wrenching event and each one added fuel to the fire of his anger. Adrenaline surged through his body and he ran, even jumping through one of those deadly explosions as one of the dolls exploded directly in front of him.

The piper was no more than a few feet away now and seeing its very real danger, it played a frantic tune calling all the remaining dolls in the clearing to surge up high into the air in obvious preparation to surge down together at the blue wraith.

The note of command only just echoed from it when Raziel reached the creature. The impact was thunderous, jarring them both but Raziel pressed into it with all his strength stabbing it through the chest with the wraith blade.

He plunged the ethereal weapon in as deep as he could, his entire hand bursting out its blade. The piper gagged and its bone instrument fell from its lips to sink into the mud.

Above, given the command and forced to obey, the dolls were descending down like a falling comet towards them screaming as they came. Raziel grabbed the creature by the neck with his free hand and dragged it down so that they were eye level.

"Your assignment is over." He hissed at the creature and then kicked it in the chest with both feet. The impact propelled him backwards, artfully flipping in mid air. The stunned piper stayed there with a hole in the middle of its chest, its arms outspread wide as the dolls slammed directly into it.

Still in midair, Raziel was thrown to the far side of the clearing by the explosion, as were a few smaller trees and a large quantity of mud.

The sensation was worse however. The feeling of so many souls destroyed at once left him lying in the mud, retching made all the more terrible in that he had no stomach to bring something up out of.

By the time the blue wraith managed to get back up to his knees and look up he saw that the Piper was gone, replaced by a deep crater filling with water. Bits of porcelain and burning fragments of clothe were raining down in all directions, all that remains of the vessels which had held those now destroyed souls.

Ariel was still deep inside his spirit and was refusing to come out or make a sound. That was fine. He wrapped her as best he could within his own essence, a comforting embrace as much for his benefit as it was for hers.

With slow deliberate motions he got to his feet and stared at the crater, his face grim. Then Raziel turned and looked off, through the trees, towards the northwest. His purpose was now firmly solid in his mind. The Soul Reaver had to be recovered and Elzier the Dollmaker had to die.


	36. 35 Kain Monarch of the damned

Kain found that, this time, he could not fully recover. His strength simply would not return to its normal level and was in fact bleeding out of him. Coldness was spreading through him from the centre of his chest and moving outwards. He felt like he was dying.

.

**_"My situation was grave. I had not recovered from this last attack; my body seemed to be leaking strength like a rusty bucket its water. I was out of time. With no means of restoring my energies I estimated I had perhaps two hours before my condition became fatal."_**

.

His telekinesis powers seemed weaker as well, along with a great deal of his other magical abilities, becoming flimsy and tenuous. That was fatal right now, as the Hylden possessed armours began to flood out from the underground ruins, amassed as a horde of jittering insane automatons. Driven beyond reason they were destroying everything in their path. Their vandalism was indiscriminate. They tore down the murals of their own underground ruins and despoiled the records left there, racing up into the Bastion itself to wreck and ruin anything the elements had left standing in the abandoned castle.

Kain was near powerless to stop them. His own power was flowing away and he was forced to run to escape their overwhelming numbers.

.

**_"Was this to be my end then? To bleed out my life in some dank hole under the Paladin's castle? Unacceptable."_**

.

Desperation was like fire in his views, burning through him like a poison but one that battled the encouraging weak numbness and kept him moving. He knew that below, with the Nexus Stone still unlocked, more souls would keep escaping from within to possess the armours Malek had thoughtlessly left behind. Soon the horde would be an unstoppable force that might very easily become a threat to Nosgoth itself.

Coming around a corner, Kain found himself in a secluded antechamber along the Bastion's eastern most wall. It was far enough from the hordes present destructive pass that it was safe at least for the moment.

Two figures were huddled there, looking exhausted. The nearest in his naked human form was the Lycanthrope emissary Ewoden. Hs arms were coated in cuts and gashes up to the shoulders where he had attempted to defend himself against as a multitude and he was bleeding. The second was the old man Ezekiel, his own arm clutched to his side from where he had taken a slash from a blade. Seeing him, Kain's nostrils flared and he with a growl started into the chamber with steadfast and furious resolve.

"You!" He barked and the old man looked up. Kain grabbed him by his cloak and hauled him roughly to his feet, forcing him to be at eye level. Ezekiel's face was a pale white from excursions and his own fragility. "Speak old man!" He demanded; his talons grip like iron despite his current state.

Staring into the elder humans face he could still remember, quite vividly and painfully, what had happened. When the Hylden in its armour body had attacked Ezekiel, Kain had felt the wound in his own arm. That he triggered this rapid decline of his health.

"Who are you?" He asked, his tone resonating with a savage undertone. "What are you?"

Ewoden grabbed the vampire by the shoulder and pulled him back roughly, forcing the two of them apart. Ezekiel staggered back against the side of the wall, gasping for air. Kain glared down at the lycanthrope and he stared back in turn, just as furious.

"You don't have the privilege to ask!" Ewoden said to him with something like contempt in his voice, lips pulled back to reveal his canines. "You deserted us! Left us to die!"

Kain snarled back and slapped the emissaries hand away.

"I was forced to retreat!" He said and then shivered in annoyance for trying to make excuses without meaning to. He took an angry step forward. "I don't need to justify myself to you, Lycanthrope." He said, jabbing a talon up and waving it in Ewoden's face. "You or anyone else!"

Ezekiel had managed to recover some composure; he straightened and looked the vampire full in the face without fear.

"Yes that's always your way hasn't it, Kain?" He asked in a cold tone he had never heard the old man use before. The now undeniable facade of the eccentric old mountain man had fallen away and he was grim and steady in his voice. "A law unto yourself, accountable to no one."

Kain stared him down before he pushed Ewoden aside and started towards the old man again, every suspicion confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"And there is the truth." The vampire said in a deliberately flat voice. "You're not just some eccentric old man are you?" He didn't touch him but rather glared at him with some force. "After all I don't recall ever telling you my name."

One side of the old man's cheek twitched as he seemed to realise his slip. His lips tightened and he narrowed his eyes.

"It's just as I told you." He said defensively. "I'm old and I've come here to die." Kain was in more than the right mood to make his wish an immediate, painful and bloody reality. He reached up and grabbed his cloak in both hands, arms trembling with anger barely kept in check.

"You think I have any scruples about eviscerating an old man?" He asked in a slow voice. "I ought to beat the truth out of you!"

His frustrations and desperations came out of him in an unguarded rush and before he even realised what he was saying he demanded of the old man; "Who are you and what is happening to me?" The question hung in the air, echoing down the corridors leading out from either side.

Kain was furious but more with himself for letting his emotions get the better of his judgement and forcing him to expose his anxieties in such a manner... and to a human no less! Snarling he pushed Ezekiel back against the wall and out of the way.

"Stay here and rot the both of you!" He spat and stormed off without looking back, too angry and frustrated to even care what Ezekiel might have to say even if he did choose to speak.

.

**_"The walk did my ire some good, allowing my temper to settle. If nothing else the anger had given me back some of my energy, vital at this point. But the dilemma remained. The Bastion was quickly filling up with lethal forces from the unlocked Nexus Stone and I was on a terribly short lifeline. I did not wish to admit it, even to myself, but I was scared." _**

**_"I had faced the possibility of death more than once, but this was different. It was like living on a deadline and knowing the expiration date of my very life."_**

**_._**

The horde was spreading, the ethereal glow from inside their warped armour seen around every corner almost and their insane jabbering echoed like an unending song of madness. It would not be long now before they found their way outside. That left Kain with a bit of a dilemma. These creatures were not present in the future timeline which means this potential incursion was stopped and most likely by him. But he did not see how he could do any of that in his present condition.

The way his body was falling apart he suspected he was no longer a match for even five of them.

So when one of them lumbered into the passage to block his path, the vampire was not optimistic of his changes as he was certain it would summon more down on top of them.

The armour however made no sound of alarm or call for its fellows. Instead it approached him, slowly and in as non threatening a posture as possible. As it drew nearer, the saw that the armour was battered and sliced in many places as if a crowd had taken maces to it and applied them with vigour. The neon sickly yellowish green of the spirit inside the armour illuminated the stone around it.

"Well Kain." It began, sounding wearily jubilant and the vampire instantly recognised the voice albeit it somewhat weakened. "Despite the cataclysmic interruption, we might have our conversation after all."

It stopped several feet away from him and came no further. From here Kain could see that part of its shoulder pauldron had been so badly cut that the left arm was in danger of falling off, hanging loose.

"Ashar?" He asked for he knew the voice of the Hylden king who had lost control of the Nexus Stone's power from within.

"Yes, it is I." The armour nodded in confirmation and raised its good hand. Ashar flexed the gauntlet as if testing its suppleness. "This body is an agony of suspended, inert senses but it is nothing if not durable."

He seemed then to catch Kain's stern glower and he lowered his hand back down to his side.

"But I see I am need of providing you with explanations." He admitted. Kain snorted derisively in response, his already irritated temper probed some more.

"More then that I should think." He said. "I want to know what's going on, no half truths or riddle games, not this time." Before he might have indulged the fancy word play and hidden meaning concealed in the words but he was low on time and patience. Ashar seemed to sense this and his helm nodded, metal rubbing against metal with a screech.

"Very well." He said. There was a pause as if thinking where to start and then he began to speak without Kain having to prompt him again. "The Nexus Stone was created at the beginning of the war, during the time when the fighting was most brutal and savage."

Kain said nothing letting him tell his story but every ounce of him straining to hear it as these might be the answered he needs to survive this ordeal.

"My people had discovered immortality through our means of binding ourselves to the energies native to the demon dimension." Ashar began. "We had discovered the true nature of the afterlife and the Wheel of Fate so our deaths were unacceptable. To that end the Nexus Stone was forged, a gemstone made from the combined essences of myself and my entire court."

The vampire considered this, remembering the vision of a swirling vortex of souls he had glimpsed while jumping from Fanum-Divus back to Nosgoth. Could that have been the ancient spirits of long dead Hylden nobility?

"So you and your court have been inside that stone all along?" He asked. Ashar leaned his new body back. His face was merely the visor of a helmet and so he had no facial expressions but his body language suggested amusement.

"Oh much more than that Kain." He said in a low tone. The vampire raised an eyebrow at him questioningly. Ashar gestured down, indicating the ruins below the bastion and the multitude of unleashed souls still there. "Unless a Hylden's soul is devoured by something else, like the Reaver for instance, the souls of my people will be drawn inside."

At first Kain did not fully comprehend what he was saying, his face a mix of confusion and puzzlement. The pieces of it were already falling into place in his mind when Ashar added; "In short Kain, the Nexus Stone contains the souls of very nearly every Hylden ever to die."

The vampire stood there, struck dumb. He only vaguely seemed to absorb what the possessed armour said next.

"The Stone's powers are so great that if a being of any race were to die in its presence their soul would be drawn inside as well."

Kain shook his head and ran a hand over his face, trying to clear his mind so it could absorb and process from the enormity of it all.

"The ancient wars..." He began quietly as if to himself. "Lasted for a thousand years..."

Ashar nodded.

"And millions on either side died during that time."

That was another giant concept to take in. If what Ashar seemed to be suggesting was true then it made the Nexus stone far more important than he had ever realised. In fact the stone might very well be the most powerful artefact in Nosgoth.

"Millions..." He repeated, trying to get his head around the idea of that many souls being squeezed into a stone no bigger than his palm.

"I gathered their spirits, their energy, for a purpose." Ashar said and his tone suddenly seemed urgent. He took a step forward, his manner imploring. "But I have to know what that purpose is and you have my instructions!"

Kain was still barely out of an awed daze.

"I don't have anything for you." He said a little lamely.

"Yes you do!" The Hylden king insisted intensely. "You absorbed them as was intended and have them safely stored inside you even as we speak!"

Kain looked up at him with fresh bafflement.

"You speak in riddles." He stated. "What have I..."

.

**_"A flash of memory... realization..."_**

.

Indeed he had absorbed something, long ago it seemed now. One by one he had sought the four of them out and when he had touched them they had broken apart and been drawn into his body as if they were a part of his very being. One of these relics had even granted him invulnerability to waters touch.

"The Tables of Dark Fable." He breathed, suddenly coming back to himself with the realization. Ashar seemed jubilant that he understood.

"There was no other way Ba'al could get the information to me." He explained, taking another step forward. "By the time he wrote the prophecy I was already dead and my soul entrapped within the stone." By now he was within arm's reach and he held out a hand to the vampire. "He had to use you as a go between. Please, let me extract the information from your body." His hand was slowly approaching Kain's chest. "It is vital..."

Kain didn't let him finish. He slapped his gauntlet away with a snarl. Ashar looked up at him and then took a hesitant step backwards.

"Keep your distance!" He spat, taking a step away from the Hylden king. Indignation and resentful anger flowing through him from deep inside, the vampire could feel his energies build fuelled by his frustrations. Ashar, despite the lack of facial expressions, looked taken aback by his fury.

"If what you say is true and I have been used as a puppet to come here for your benefit then I see no reason to trust you." He snapped. "You or Ba'al Zebur anymore."

Despite his better instincts he had blindly followed the Stone's direction to come to this place and place him in this nightmare when he ought to have sought a means of preserving himself against the encroaching death he felt near. After his experiences with Moebius he was furious with himself for not knowing better.

"Everything we have done..." Ashar started defensively. "And I must finish is for your benefit, not our own."

Kain remained silent in immovable.

"How may I convince you that we stand as allies at your side, Scion?" The hylden king asked, sounding a little exasperated. Again Kain did not reply and the silent between them dragged on. Then the soul in the armour tilted its metal body back and swayed.

"If you wish to retrieve the Nexus Stone, there is another way into the forging chamber." He said slowly and Kain narrowed his eyes.

"What?"

"A secondary entrance, bypassing the deranged horde that my followers have become."

The vampire paused, letting the silence linger again for perhaps a minute before he asked;

"And you will show me this entrance?"

Ashar nodded.

"If it will earn your trust then yes." He said and stepped to one side, gesturing for Kain to follow him. "You may enter and close the stone so no more souls within are wasted."

While the horde was a threat that needed to be quashed and quickly, the way Ashar had put it sat very oddly in his mind.

"Wasted?" The vampire repeated slowly.

"You did not think I went to all that excruciating trouble just to create an alternative hell for my people did you?" Ashar asked in return and now his tone was bitter, self condemning and grim. "Existence inside the stone is no better than the Wheel of Fate, perhaps worse. Their energy has a purpose, a purpose that coincides with your own agenda. You will need that power to prevail."


	37. 36 Raziel Lost

The further north he travelled, the deeper the snow became on both the ground and the surrounding trees but it was not deep enough to hide the dozens of tortured eyes watching from the centres of porcelain and clothe heads. The dolls were everywhere, covering nearly every tree he past by and only seemed to grow thick in abundance the further north he travelled.

The further Raziel pushed on he saw that the dolls changed. Those closest to the dollmakers abode had their faces twisted and pulled back in frozen expression of terror and horror. Perhaps these dolls had been here the longest.

.

**_"The Dollmaker left nothing to chance when it came to the security of his domain and his enthralled dolls, holding the souls of kidnapped children, watched from the darkness of the forest for intruders."_**

.

Raziel however had skill enough in stealth to avoid the gaze of each of these sentinels, slipping through the forest from shadow to shadow. Deliberately he kept his gaze averted from their faces so that he could not have to see the expressions of torment that unnerved even his hardened mind.

.

**_"I could feel the torment, the agony and perpetual pain from each and every one of them. This occult evil, this repugnant practise, told of a preserve nature that delighted in the anguish it inflicted."_**

.

He could not avoid the sight of one doll, crucified with arms outstretched across the width of a massive pine. It had nails thrust through its legs and belly and one directly through its mouth. The numb black button eyes, full of pain, stared up into the sky beseechingly.

.

**_"It would be one of the greatest pleasures to wipe this stain clean." _**

.

The trees ended abruptly with a short gravel shore outlining a large body of water. A river fed into it from a waterfall on the northern edge but in the biting cold of winter, that and the lake itself was frozen over completely. The air over the lake was full of a thick suffocating fog as if a cloud had settled down here.

Squinting through the gloom Raziel could make out a small landmass directly in the centre of the lake, no more than half an acre across. Even from this distance Raziel could see a structure standing upon it. It was just as the fill fated scout had described; a house on an island in the middle of a lake. This could be only one place.

.

**_"The aptly named Lake of Lost Souls was before me and directly in its centre lay the lair of the one who had caused so much misery, the house of Elzevir the Dollmaker."_**

**_._**

The blue wraith stood looking at the island for perhaps a full five minutes, eyes narrowed in concentration. There it was; the lair... and Elzevir had gone to great lengths and pains to ensure that any approach to his domain was observed. And yet here was an open stretch of ground between here and there with apparently no watcher or guards.

That struck Raziel as simply too good to be true.

Still giving Elzevir time to devise a defence was a bad idea as well. Standing here just staring at the place was inviting trouble. Setting his shoulders Raziel began across the ice at a run, leaving his footprints in the blanket of snow. As he moved the blue wraith kept his senses open, trying to take in everything at once for the signs of danger approaching. As he made his way across the ice, the house of the dollmaker became more distinct.

Despite being built in such an inconvenient location, it was quite a large mansion with two stories and a high arched roof made of slate. A multitude of dark windows with thick red curtains drawn across ran in regular order across the front over a large but plain looking door. Lanterns with snuffed out candles stood to either side of the door, swinging on their posts.

The house looked plain and if it were truly the lair of Elzevir then it showed how small the dollmaker really was, no more than a petty hedge sorcerer hiding in the woods. To think that the owner of this lair had brought low a nation, the idea seems ludicrous.

"No guards..." Raziel muttered to himself in puzzlement as he reached the island's steep bank and started up towards the house. Scattered here and there were lumpy sacks of hessian just lying in the snow. A glance told the blue wraith they were full of mud and he ignored them, striding up to the plain panelled door.

The large iron ring set as a knocker hung loosely and swaying as snow drifted down and away from it. The low pitched creaking it made was somehow intensely ominous in the silence around him.

"He must know I'm here..." He said in a low tone, reaching out to grasp that handle and steady it. Just as he was preparing to yank the door open, he felt a deeply ominous and aggressive pressure directly behind him.

Swinging to the left he managed to avoid being struck by a fist made of clothe. Turning the blue wraith saw his attackers. The clothe sacks he had ignored had risen up, vaguely in a human shape and were lumbering towards him blindly. As they moved holes ripped in the thin sacks that where their skin and a torrent of dirt and small stone pebbles fell out.

Retaliating in a blur of instinct Raziel kicked the crude golem directly in the chest. Its body was so weak his foot past right through and punched out the far side.

Surprised by that weakness the blue wraith brought his leg back and then swung it straight across the torso from right to left. It tore in half as if he was kicking through dirt, the cloth skin easily parting. The entire putrid thing collapsed in on itself and fell to the ground in a twitching heap of mud with no structure.

Another lumbered up to take its fellows place and seeing it coming, Raziel threw his arm forward unleashing a condensed bolt of telekinetic force. The impact blew a huge hole in the middle of the creature and with no support its top half fell in on itself.

Perhaps these creatures might pose a threat to a human intruder or even to an experienced fledgling with no enhanced abilities but to him it was mere child's play.

A third lunged at him from behind, twisting its body to try and grapple the blue wraith with its massive pudgy arms. Raziel ducked under the lunge and using the creatures own momentum against it, he smashed its body into the side of the house with enough force to make it burst.

More were rising from the snow, perhaps animated by the deaths of the others. One or two of these creatures was no challenge but if they fathered into a group they might cause hindrance. Raziel decided not to linger with a prolonged fight and instead flourished his arm, the wraith blade roaring into life at his command.

He rushed in amongst them, his body twisting and spinning in a furious dance that landed on blow on each of the animated sack men within his arms reach. It was hard to tell in the blur of combat but he estimated that he had struck five.

Bits of torn and ravaged dirt and torn hessian dropped down into the snow with wet thumps, pupating lumps of mud still trying to move for a moment after dismemberment. If Raziel were to guess their method of animation he supposed it would be the same as that of the dolls he had seen, souls bound to objects and forced to perform on specific function. With no eyes or ears to tell them where he was, these golems were only able to tell where he was by the drive of the enchantment binding them within the unnatural form.

They were slow, clumsy and unenthusiastic; slaves forced to work their tortured souls did not understand.

The last four of their group kept on coming, ignorant of how very much outclassed they actually were.

Raziel set into them quickly, to at least free them from this bondage if nothing else. One he cleaved from shoulder to hip with one swipe, a second he decapitated and then sliced down the middle so the two halves fell away to either side.

The third ran at him blindly and he ducked down, whipping his legs around and knocking the golem's support out from under it. As it fell onto its back the blue wraith was upon it, savaging with his talons up and down until its body was a scattered mess.

The fourth was still far away down the bank when it started moving towards him. Raziel didn't bother getting in close this time. He cupped his hands in front of his chest and using his mind focused a burst of Telekinetic force between his talons. Unleashed, the bolt struck the golem full on and sent it flying out over the ice of the lake.

When it struck the ice cracked open and the bundle of animated dirt and clothe vanished beneath the water. It didn't come back up.

Staring after it, Raziel was confirmed in his suspicions that Elzevir was not a great a threat as the Ottmar's feared him to be. His methods were crude and his magic third rate, augmented by the enchantments upon the Reaver. He was like a child playing with fire, barely comprehending its potential.

He didn't bother pulling on the door. The blue wraith simply kicked it down. The doors fell inwards with a loud clatter and with no other obstacles in his path Raziel entered the house of the Dollmaker.

From the layout Raziel supposed this house might have been built as a winter mountain retreat for some nobleman and the dollmaker had usurped it. The house certainly had that look to it with highly artistic wooden buttress running the corners the ceilings in each room, delicately engraved with flowers. The walls were shabby and run down but showed evidence of a tarnished former glory.

Most of the rooms were abandoned, full of thick dust and spiders webs. A few had furniture like old sofas and chairs but those were covered in thick white sheets that had just as much dust on them as everything else.

A few rooms he came into had been swept and cleared for a new purpose and each one was disturbing in a unique way. One had more of those dolls inside, nailed to the walls has the others had been to the trees and these were the worst he had seen so far. Their faces twisted so horribly into visages of demonic horror Raziel wondered if souls trapped inside were even aware they were once human.

Another room was a workshop of some kind. Wood carving tools lay on one table and a sewing kit on another. Toys of all kinds were laid out on row upon row of shelves, dolls, puppets, teddy bears, stuffed animals as well as many others. In any other setting the room would have been charming. Here it only deepened the blue wraith's sense of distaste and repugnance.

He was half expecting the teddy bears to leap off the shelves and attack him, but dismissed it as his simply being jumpy.

Methodically, he explored the first floor of the house, even dipping down into a cellar much to his disgust when he found more dolls locked away in the darkness. But the dollmaker himself eluded discovery.

A flight of stairs led up to the top floor, the red carpet running down them grey with age and thick with spiders eggs.

The lack of any guardians inside the house, even more simple ones such as the golems from outside, left him even more disturbed. Surely Elzevir could not be this stupid, not to have a last line of defence in chase intruders got this far? Suddenly it all clicked in his mind and the blue wraith stiffened.

He had missed the simplest explanation. Perhaps he had been used to dealing with people with complex motivations for so long that he had not seen it. Elzevir had no grand designs for letting him get this far. The little man was insane, pure and simple. His use of the dolls, his very modus operandi and intents showed that beyond any doubt.

Willendorf, the mighty kingdom of the lion, had been brought low by a man who ought to be locked deep within an asylum. That was perhaps the saddest part of this epic tragedy and yet superbly fitting for this era, when all of Nosgoth falls into anarchy and madness

There was a door at the top of the stairs. It wasn't locked so he pushed it open as he stepped into a long but cramped hallway running down the back of the house with others branching off from it into separate rooms. Doors were set into each corridor evenly and each one was plain with no identifiable markings to differentiate between them. Perhaps either Alicia or the Dollmaker was behind one of these doors.

There was nothing for it but to search them. Reaching out Raziel gripped the handle of the nearest door and pushed it open, stepping inside. The light coming through the draw curtains was poor but it was still good enough to see what lay inside.

As Raziel put a foot down he stepped on something dry and brittle and it cracked. Looking down he saw that he had stepped upon the skeletal remains of an arm.

.

**_"With dismay I realised what these rooms held, for here was the resting place of the children lured here by the Dollmaker's piper minions."_**

.

Slowly his head moved up to take it all in. The bones of dozens upon dozens of skeletons lay piles up high in the corners and across the floor, skulls and ribcages all smashed in as if pulverised. None of the skeletons was tall enough to be that of an adult.

With a sort of sick numbness, Raziel turned from the scene and immediately opened the door directly to his left. The room beyond was exactly the same, full of the bones of children. The room beyond was the same again and the one beyond that. In a blur Raziel had the doors in this one corridor open. Every single one of the eight rooms was full of discarded skeletons, some old and brittle and others more recent and still tinged red with gore.

This was the final piece of evidence Raziel needed. Elzevir was without a doubt utterly insane and his possession of the Soul Reaver allowed his madness to spread, hastening the decay of a world already in decline.

Ariel's projected manifestation appeared beside him, her face a purified whole but creased into an intense visage of righteous anger. The emotion he suddenly felt from her was unbridled rage, something she had not displayed even towards Kain. When she spoke her voice echoed as if a second person were speaking over the top of her with the same voice only lower in pitch.

"I am only a former guardian..." She said; eyes fixed on the heinous macabre spectacle. "...and a shade of a person, memories imprinted onto released energy." The former balance guardian was a portrait of rage. "But by all the authority in the entire universe that I might have left, Raziel!" Her head turned sharply to look at him and he meet her gaze with his own, just as fierce and angry. "Do not let this man live!"

"That, I promise you." He told her immediately with just as much intensity in his voice as she displayed. They were for that moment bound together by their shared outrage.

With their resolution iron clad, Raziel preceded to the last door at the end of the second corridor. It was larger than the others and had a curved rather than a flat top.

There was nowhere left in his house to run. The insane little man had been driven to ground. Reaching out he turned the handle. The door swung open casting light into the darkened room, a long room with a high ceiling with wooden beams holding up the roof. It seems to be another workshop, with shelves full of stuffed toys and other childish things. Puppets hug from the rafters like bats and teddy bears, some as large as a person, lay against the walls like oversized pillows.

Sitting in a chair on the far side of the room, framed on one side by the largest of the bears, was a familiar figure, staring at him with wide eyes.

In a flash he recognised Alicia Ottmar, the daughter the king had tried to sacrifice to save his own skin. But in that moment of realisation the blue wraith also realised that he was too late to save her. Her skin was pale white and there were large dark patches splattered around the floor by her feet, travelling up her dress to her neck. Her throat had been cut from ear to ear and the blood was drenched down her front.

Raziel had had a lot of experience with cadavers and corpses. One glance was enough to tell him that he had arrived around one hour too late. Elzevir had claimed another of the Ottmar bloodline.


	38. 37 Kain Living Machine

The roars and howls of the wolf echoed down through the, until recent, empty corridors of the complex under the Bastion. Kain could hear them even here, behind the false wall that had slid just long ago. Now he was trapped inside with only Ashar's word this passage came out where he said it could. Still, risks had to be taken in this unacceptable situation.

Ewoden had been reluctant to engage in the plan at all, which showed to Kain that the emissary possessed some remarkable good sense. This strategy was a desperate one and admittedly the only one they had at this time. On top of this, Kain was running low on time. He could feel himself teetering on the knife edge ready to fall to either side. He was certain now that if he suffered another attack of weakness he would die.

Agreeing to Ashar's proposal went against all of his common sense and prior experience. The situation was so tailor made that Moebius himself could not have set a finer trap, if it were indeed a snare designed to catch the vampire.

The answer had to be close. The stone was the key somehow. He could not say how he knew this he just felt it was true deep within his soul and that that intuitive feeling had made him agree to the proposal.

.

**_"While the Lycanthrope kept the horde distracted I could us this alternative entrance to the stone forge unmolested. This route was hardly a short cut but if it gave me access to the chamber I would have to make due. "_**

.

The horde of maddened Hylden however would not be discarded by one werewolf, no matter how mighty, for very long. Eventually they would either force him to retreat or overwhelm him. The window of opportunity was brief.

This secret passage was more of a maintenance pipe, lined with many cables and curved metal instruments all welded together so precisely they seemed organic. This way must have been shut for some time, longer even then the hidden complex' main corridors which only Malek himself had visited since their closing after the conclusion of the ancient war. It was entirely possible nobody knew of this passages existence except for its designer.

Kain had to wonder if Ashar had had some way of knowing he no longer burned in water like other vampires. There could be no other explanation for the obstacle that barred his way. The passageway opened up into a large rectangular chamber with only one exit on the far side, a large door with Hylden glyph engraved into it. Between Kain and the way forward was a large pool of brown stagnant water that stank of zinc. The pool stretched the width of the chamber completely with no way of crossing. There used to be a catwalk that enabled one to move to the other side but it seemed to have collapsed, the bridge rusted and snapped, each half jutting out of the pool at either end.

Standing like obelisks at regular intervals from the water's surface were four large pylon like device, all with a flat top and just as rusted as the bridge. What Kain knew of machines indicated this might be an elaborate cooling system, designed to spread water around a powerful energy generator so that it would not overheat. Indeed through the brown murk he could see pipes carrying the water around, perhaps in a wide circuit to where it might be needed.

Just as he set a foot into the water to swim across he realised his mistake for instantly his skin began to burn and boil, just as it had when he was still vulnerable to it. Instantly he retracted his foot with a grunt of pain. His burns healed but far slower than usual.

His weakened body was reverting, he realised with sinking fear. The protection that the one tablet of Dark Fable had awarded him had been rendered inert.

How was that even possible, he wondered with a furtive and anxious expression running a hand down his brow. The only thing he could think that might explain it was if his body needed to be strong and vibrant for that protection to be active. In his pitifully weakened state, water would burn him as it had ever done.

.

**_"T'would seem navigating this alternative route would not be as easy I had anticipated. Weakened as I was, my body was unable to withstand water's touch anymore. A lost boon that might prove fatal." _**

.

With the urgency of his quest firmly in mind now, Kain searched around for an alternative route. It did not take him long to find one. The pylons sticking up out of the water were not spaced too far apart. Tensing himself first, Kain leapt onto the first with a vampirically enhanced jump. Landing on the ancient machine he felt it sway briefly beneath him, much of its structural integrity lost over time to encroaching rust.

Not giving it time to buckle he jumped onto the next one, having to steady himself again as this one was even more crumbled then the first had been. He felt something break on his landing and the pylon tilted forward with a protesting groan.

Acting quickly the vampire jumped again, leaping forward to the third pylon. This one held steady and Kain paused to collect himself and prevent his own momentum and inertia from pushing him over the far edge.

One glance was enough to tell him that the last pylon between him and the door was the worst of the four. It was obviously decayed and would never hold his weight. The vampire wondered if he might make it to the door from his present location. No, it was still too far. He had no choice but to use that last Pylon as a stepping stone.

He would just have to be quick. He took a breath and the launched forward. He arched up and then landed with a thud on the last pylon, the metal straining and giving way immediately. The entire spire tilted forward and broke into pieces. Kain didn't even set his other foot down, instead he used what little structure was left and launched forward again. He was just quick enough as the entire pylon collapsed into the water with a splash.

With a thud he smacked into the ledge he had been aiming forward, talons latching onto the edge to prevent himself from falling. It had been a near thing. Grunting, Kain pulled himself up and cast a glance back. Ripples were still spreading out across the pool but the pylon itself had disappeared completely.

The door barring the way forward was jammed shut but not hard to open. One solid kick sent the two halves slamming out to either side against the wall. Beyond was a square corridor that slanted sharply down. The air beyond was icy cold and Kain's breath puffed out before him as he entered. It lead down some considerable distance, curving slightly around a central shaft. When it opened up Kain saw that he was inside a very large egg shaped chamber.

Catwalks ran in a circle around the outside edge of the chamber running over spokes like a wheel that connected to a central machine directly in the middle. It was a complex device that Kain had no hope of understanding completely. Its function and workings were simply too advanced. A central pillar seemed to be surrounded by interweaving pipes that fed into a glass tank around the bottom. Above this were perhaps ten alcoves each about the height of a man and as wide. Set into some of them were tall coffin like containers made of dark metal and engraved with more of the Hylden glyph writing, each denoted with different writing from the others.

On the far side of the chamber was a small platform, set into which were a complex looking set of levers and turntable gears. Kain made his way over towards this, inspecting the machine and the chamber around him.

It had similar architecture to the complex and huge living machines he had seen only in two other locations, the ancient Hylden city off the coast of southern Nosgoth and the city sized 'Device' buried underneath Meridian.

He looked at the controls sceptically, frowning. There seemed to be no going forward until he learned how to shift something in the chamber and by the look of it, the only way out of the chamber was via a large circular hole directly beneath the central machine. This was currently blocked by the machines large rectangular base.

Then he heard the sounds coming from below, moans and shrikes, the howls of battle and the higher pitched wails of a Lycanthrope. Kain listened as, with a start, he realised that this chamber was directly above the Stone's forge, in fact this room and its device might even be a part of the forge itself. The vampire remembered seeing a hole covered by a grate in the roof of the room before the horde had forced him to see. That hole had to be underneath this machine.

There had to be something to this, he decided quickly and the vampire turned his full attention back upon the controls before him. The sounds from below were frantic and chaotic. Ewoden would not keep the insane Hylden souls occupied forever.

Pulling a switch Kain watched as the machine before him gave off a loud clanking noise. Parts of it turned clockwise around itself and others counter clockwise, locking into new positions with an echoing metallic clunk.

The coffin like contains changed places as well. Some of them moved down to join with the block at the base of the machine while others were drawn up on metal cables up to the roof where they were slotted in place inside a secondary alcove system.

Kain saw at once what he had to do. Some levers would raise the contains and others would lower them. He had to get all the containers up and out of the way so that the way to the forge would be a clear.

It took a quick bit of trail and error, the levers not being marked in a language he understood. But driven on by the spur of the sound of battle Kain eventually figured out what levers to pull in what sequence. The last of the containers rose up out of the way and ascended, leaving the hole clear for him to see now.

The grate was fastened on tight with four large bolts that looked squashed and rigid from having so much weight put upon them so long.

Vaulting over the side of the catwalk, Kain slid down the curved side of the walls right to it as quickly as he dared go. Reaching the grate he found his initial assessment of the state of the bolts holding it in place was correct. He could not pry this grate loose nor the mashed bolts.

He was going to have to risk using his mist form in order to pass. It was not something he wanted to do as it might provoke his condition, but this was clearly an instance of where he had no choice.

Setting himself in grim resignation the vampire concentrated and then let his body disperse. There was a moment of panic where he thought he might expire in that instant but it past with no small amount of relief.

He sank down between the gaps in the grate easily and as he had guessed, he had re-entered the Nexus Stone's forge. The sight of the stone with its vortex still exposed, a swirling mass of seemingly unending souls, jolted him back to solid form and he dropped to the ground with his feet not making a sound.

The Stone itself was still glowing an intense green with its true nature exposed and showed no signs of letting up.

Ashar had to have been telling the truth about the artefact. To think that the souls of millions lay trapped within and always had. He had carried around that stone to make himself immune to the Soul Reaver in the Sarafan Lord' possession and he had never once suspected it's true nature.

Three of the Hylden automatons were standing guard around it, all of them turned to face the open main doorway. From beyond the sounds of battle ragged intently and the howls of Ewoden's vicious charge were beginning to falter.

Kain smiled. Even in his weakened state he could take three of them. Without wasting any more of the time the emissary had bought him he rushed at the three of them, throwing his arm forward at them palm up. His telekinetic abilities, augmented by the Serioli gauntlet he still wore, sent a bolt of force smashing into them. Unprepared, the three suited of armour were torn off their feet and flew, with somehow startled exclamations, out the main entrance. They landed some distance away with a loud clatter.

Kain ignored them and the confused cries of their fellows outside and went at once for the Nexus Stone. He grabbed the artefact in both hands and pulled at it as hard as he could. The machine did not want to let go of the stone without a fight and held on intently. The vortex above flickered slightly from the interference. The wails of souls, driven mad from captivity, arched into a high pitched crescendo.

As Kain struggled, several more of the Hylden automatons came chagrining in with swords drawn. When they saw what the vampire was doing they all let out outraged and inarticulate scream.

"No!" One of them spat, running ahead of its fellows with a sword drawn back and ready to pierce anything in its way. "Too many are still inside!"

Still keeping his hands on the stone, Kain flipped his entire body up over the swing and then smashed his foot down on the helmet. The impact caved the metal head in and smashed it directly into the torso itself. The Hylden folded like crumbled paper.

A second brought his blade at the vampire in an overhead swing. Kain let go of the stone with one hand and gestured at the armour, grabbing it telekinetically and throwing it with full force into another of their number not far away. The strength he had put into that caused the two of them to shatter into many metallic fragments on the jarring impact.

Another wielded a trident with barbed ends. This it jabbed at the vampire viciously and with intense fervour. Kain kept dodging the swings grabbed the weapon as it came directly at his head. With a yank he tore it free from the Hylden's grip and then swung it across, the force enough to break the armour in half across the waist.

"We will not allow you to damn them!" The top half of the dismembered armour spat at him from the ground, feebly struggling to attack him without benefit of a weapon or even a pair of legs.

"You are already all damned." Kain replied without looking at it. He set his shoulders, talons digging into the stone's bindings. "This way you have some purpose!"

He heaved as hard as he could, as hard as he dared. Veins stood out along his arms and neck and the vampire bared his fangs from the effort.

Then finally, the metal gave in. The Nexus Stone burst forth from its slot and Kain clutched it tightly at the prize of immeasurable importance that it was. Without the forge device to hold it open, the golden setting of the central stone clicked back into its normal position and the vortex of souls instantly vanished. One minute the whirlpool of the dammed had been there and the next it was gone as if it had never been, the echo of the wail of the tormented lingering with a high pitched screech. While this was indeed a positive thing to be celebrated, Kain realised that he would have little time for that now. Clutching the stone to him he turned quickly to face that which he knew was coming.

Coming in through the main entrance of the Stone's forge came the horde seemingly all of them at once, axes and swords covered in blood and not looking pleased. A multitude of the armoured figures, slowly pushing their way into the room. The chamber seemed to resonate with their low angry growls.

Kain backed up against the wall of the chamber. But he had no place to go, a weakening body and an artefact that in the right hands could reshape the world.

The Hylden entrapped with the Sarafan armour looked upon him with loathing and anger for having deprived their kin still inside whatever salvation they might have offered.

"You..." The nearest of their number growled at him, dragging its sword tip along the ground so it trailed sparks. "We held no more malice towards your kind, vampire; we were content to leave the conflict behind us and your people unmolested." Kain glanced from right to left as the horde moved to flank him on either side of him, nowhere to run and no room of manoeuvre.

"But for what you have just done..." Their apparent leader said with a hiss, raising the sword up as if he intended to plunge it into the vampire's chest. "...we will gladly make an exception!"


	39. 38 Raziel Kain's loose end

Perhaps some small, foolishly optimistic part of himself still held onto some hope as he crossed the room towards her. But with every step he took that hope died. There was no question of it now, she was gone.

Standing beside her enthroned corpse, Raziel looked upon her sadly. Her plea for aid had been the desperate act of a scared little girl, crying out for help. Now her body sat there, face devoid of hope and emotion, blood crusted upon the slit wound across her neck.

**_._**

**_ "I was too late. Alicia Ottmar, the last of the Ottmar bloodline of the lion kingdom of Willendorf, was now dead."_**

**_._**

Looking down her body, his eyes travelling his gaze rested upon the object in her lap which she seemed to cradle. Gently he pulled a stiffened hand away and he saw a crude clothe doll sitting there. It was a rude piece of craftsmanship fashioned from dirty rags and stuffed with the same. Its body was only barely human shaped and its eyes were smudged and broken buttons held in place with only one stitch. Held to the side of the offensive things head was a lock of brown hair, held in place by a rusty and bent nail driven straight through its head.

Were the dolls he had seen so far held the souls of all of the victims of the denizen of his filthy place then this doll's presence could only mean one thing. Carefully, he plucked the doll from the grasp of the corpse and held it up.

Staring into the dull and dirty eyes of the thing, somehow, he discerned and sensed an awareness looking back at him.

"Is she..?" Ariel's voice asked tentatively from within the vaults of his mind. Raziel only stared at the toy in his hands, his eyebrows knitting into a grim frown. He can sense that the doll contained a soul and feel its energy humming inside from its encapsulation. There was no way to tell if it was indeed the right soul but the chances were good.

Perhaps he had indeed arrived too late to save her life, but not too late to save her soul.

.

**_"She would not suffer the same fate as the rest of her blood, entrapped inside such a crude doll to be molested at Elzevir's whim."_**

**_._**

With a determined nod he turned to go back the way he had come, doll in hand when he found his path blocked. Standing there between him and the exit was the dollmaker. The little man's face was set with a scowl of annoyance and his hands rested upon the pommel of the sword, the stolen Soul Reaver. To either side and behind him stood three of his piper minion, flutes of bone to their lips ready to sing their deadly song.

Slowly Raziel placed the doll back down on the lap of the corpse and stood between Elzevir and his prize, body tensed with talons spread out to either side. He could already feel the first vibrations of the paradox, his proximity to the blade and his soul contained inside beginning the temporal pulsing.

"That doesn't belong to you." The dollmaker said, the side of his face twitching. His hands tightened convulsively on the hilt of the sword.

"And it doesn't belong to you either, little man." Raziel replied coldly and with all the distain he felt, eyes narrowing at him. "Nor do any of the souls you've stolen."

Elzevir apparently did not have much self control. His patience and nerve seemed to break and he bared his teeth, hissing like an animal and his eyes wide with fury.

"They're mine! All mine!" He shouted, spittle flying from his mouth. He raised the sword and gestures around, indicating the entire house and the horrors contained therein. "The Ottmar's gave them to me!"

That one sentence, here in this time and place, was enough. It was like the final piece of the puzzle clicking into place, the whole picture finally exposed. Raziel stood there staring at him silently, his mind racing and connecting the memories buried deep within him to his conscious mind. In that instant he recalled. Kain had been sitting on his throne, hand resting on the pommel of the sword as he talked to the assembled council of the clan leaders. He had been once again regaling them with stories of his exploits and actions during his younger days. He had mentioned it only briefly in explanation of a larger more important event, about a strange little old man who had converted a princess' soul.

.

**_"I knew him. It was no fabulous realisation which left me surprised or even taken aback. It was just a final piece to make a puzzle complete and the image left me filled with repugnant loathing." _**

.

Raziel gave a growl of disgust and flicked his wrist, the wraith blade erupting forth and humming intently. Its ethereal glow lit up the darkened room. And Elzevir stared at it, face locked into an expression that gave no emotion but told of intent madness.

"So you are the Dollmaker..." Raziel began flatly and with cold distain, memories ironclad now in his absolute certainty. "The minor wizard of no great significance who stole the soul of King Ottmar's daughter, before the battle of the last stand against the Legions of the Nemesis."

Elzevir stood there, confused incredulity plain on his face now.

"You speak gibberish creature!" He spat back, shaking with suppressed rage. Raziel however found the entire affair now vastly amusing.

"Yes I imagine I would to you wouldn't I?" He asked rhetorically, lifting an eyebrow at the frustrated little man. The Pipers around the dollmaker all turned their heads to look down at him and Raziel could see that in his anger, Elzevir was losing a little bit of control over them. His minions bodies flickered like a candle flame a little each time the dollmaker snarled in anger, as if it was only his conscious effort and will that kept them here.

"Kain killed you." Raziel began, deciding to push the perverse human off balance. "But when he murdered William in the past, history was rewritten. If the Nemesis never existed then Kain would have had no reason to destroy you to galvanise the Willendorf armies."

Elzevir's nervous tick was growing so eventually one side of his face seemed to be contracting, exposing his yellowed teeth. The piper to his right raised up one hand and looked at it, its form fading in and out as if it couldn't decide whether it existed or not.

"You are Kain's loose end." The blue wraith pressed on, taking a step forward and changing his tone to one as insulting as he could possibly manage. "You were restored to life by a mere oversight. In short, you lucked out."

He felt the wraith blade out before him, flickering like a sword aflame.

"Today your luck ends." Not giving the dollmaker a chance to collect his infuriated wits, Raziel leapt straight at him. He brought the Reaver around in an arch aimed directly at the man's face. One of the Pipers came forward instant to protect its master, spinning up into mid air and landing a powerful kick to the blue wraith's chest. Raziel was thrown backwards by the impact but he controlled his fall, skidding to a stop along the floor.

The piper that kicked him went in another attack while the two others hung back and lifted their instruments to their lips. Together they began to play a haunting duo of song, the notes of the ghostly song combining into a commanding and dominating melody neither of them could conjure on their own.

Suddenly with a lurch, the toys all around the room began to sway and move on their own accord. The dozens of teddy bears quivered as if in the grip of a seizure. Raziel starred with wide eyes before he was forced to duck at that first piper came at him with an overhead swing. Dancing back out of his way, Raziel backed off until his back connected with something soft.

Turning around sharply and then glancing up, Raziel saw that looming over him was one of the larger stuffed toys, a large teddy bear with a blank expressionless face. It raised its felt arm and out from the fabric popped metallic blades arranged like claws. The arm descended towards him in a heartbeat, swinging down with its dagger like claws singing in the air. Acting on instinct Raziel back flipped in an instant, narrowly avoiding the swipe. Using the lunging Piper's shoulders as a springboard he vaulted up and then down behind it. The wraith blade flourished in a wide arch, cleaving the flesh of the creature as it descended. The ethereal weapon sliced down and its back burst open, the bloodless contents inside exposure. The Piper gagged and stumbled forward, arms wrapping around its chest as if to keep its torso from splitting completely in half.

Raziel tried to move in to finish it off but the massive stuffed teddy marched across his path, swinging its arms wildly to try and hit him. Dodging the clumsy swipes Raziel felt patently ridiculous to be fighting an oversized child's toy.

It came down at him with a lunge reminiscent of an actual Bear and Raziel slide down, feeling the blades slice through his wings. It was not a large injury but the loss of energy necessary to repair it caused a momentary flinch. That one lapse allowed the large furry foot to pin him to the floor. For a stuffed construction made of felt, fur and wool it was surprisingly stroke and heavy. It kept him pinned down there and it felt no pain from the wounds he inflicted with his talons, raking through the fabric.

It yielded to the Reaver eventually as he brought the blade up and sliced through its leg from the knee downward. Caught off balance the giant toy stumbled backwards with a loud thump and the blue wraith rolled out from underneath it.

"You shan't have it!" Elzevir spat, his voice a high pitched wail. With the stolen Reaver he gesticulated wildly around, only vaguely waving it in Raziel's direction. The pipers followed his direction, their song causing the stuffed animals all around to leap up in response entranced like snakes before a charm. "Mine, mine, mine!"

Smaller toys marched on the floor towards him, waddling like babies awkwardly in a swaying gait, innocent looking until when commanded their lead forth their blade claws. They were slow and clumsy but so many of them of various sizes Raziel was kept on the defensive, darting back and forth to avoid being cut to ribbons.

The third piper came at him again, kicking out with its long legs at his head. Raziel parried the attack aside and ducked slow to avoid a punch. A teddy bear with a short sword jutting out of its left arm jabbed at him on the floor and he rolled to the left to escape it, between the stubby legs of another of the larger.

The sheers numbers were keeping him from attacking the root of the problem. There had to be a way to clear a path for him to land a fatal blow.

Then he saw the rafters above again and acting on instinct, he ran at the largest of the lumbering toys in front of him. The lumbering teddy bear turned to try and confront him but its massive stuffed bulk made it too slow and leaping up across its body, Raziel used its head as a stepping stone and vaulted up onto the rafters.

Above the stumbling army of toys, the blue wraith gained a moment of breathing space to coordinate a strategy and to go for the head of this serpent. Not losing momentum, he leapt from rafter to rafter in the dollmaker's general direction. On the last rafter before he reached his target, a hand snapped up and latched onto his ankle holding him in place. Glancing down sharply he could see that climbing up the rafter's underside like a spider was the injured piper, grinning maniacally at him despite the gaping wound across its back.

As it climbed up to be level with him, its body twisted impossibly around and it lashed out with fists that blurred in their attacks. One blow caught the Raziel across the cheek and he swung backwards, catching onto the ceiling with his talons to steady himself. The piper relentlessly came on with another raised fist.

The blue wraith twisted to one side, narrowly avoiding the strong blow and brought the wraith blade up sharply. The ghostly sword cleaved through flesh and bone and the creature fist separated from the arm. Its own momentum carried it on until it slammed into the woodwork of the roof. Injured and dismembered, the irrepressibly smiling creature took a step backwards on the rafter. Raziel swung forward, forcing all the energy and strength he could muster into the wraith blade. He swung his right arm up and then across and it screamed in its motion.

The piper didn't move an inch for an entire second. Then its torso slid to its left and its leg to the side and its body lost cohesion and fell apart. The line of dividing carried on past the body and through the rafter itself. The stout beam of wood fell into two pieces and each half swung down with a loud creaking, smashing several of the smaller stuffed toes and one of the larger ones. The splintered wood ripped through the woollen fabric of their bodies.

Raziel landed amidst a cloud of flying wood fragments. He moved fast then, darting up to the still moving body of the Piper he had dropped. It was trying to reattach its legs to its hips. Raziel swung the Reaver down, once, twice, and carved the rest of its body apart.

With its physical body unable to keep its spectral form contained any more, its true visage appeared in a blinding flash. The Archon swung back and forth, its spindly forearms struggling wildly to free itself. As its fish like tail escaped the crumbling remains its body faded, becoming transparent before disappearing and vanishing completely with a soft wail.

"You're ruining everything!" The dollmaker was screaming at him, livid and stamping his foot. His face was purple with rage and his eyes bulged dramatically. With his left hand around the hilt of the physical Reaver he was waving the sword around above his head.

"My collection, my power!" His voice had risen to almost a shrill screech. Raziel read anger, frustration and strangely, terror in his eyes. "I was nothing! Nothing before I found the sword!" The two pipers at his side were looking at each other across their instruments and their bodies were starting to flicker. In his rage the doll maker was losing his grip on his servants again.

"Master promised me power! Promised me eternal life!" Spittle was flying from the little man's lips in his madness. "Promised me I could be a Divus!"

Raziel brought his left arm back, talons spreading wide. The little man was so foolishly without poise or composure he had left himself wide open to defeat.

"I'm sure they'd just love to have you." The blue wraith remarked and threw his arm forward, a pulse of concentrated telekinetic force flying out from his hand. It shot across the distance between the two pipers, whose eyes widened in silent surprise. With a loud meaty smack it collided into the dollmaker's face, striking him fully in the nose. The impact threw the human off his feet and back, tumbling end of end until it collided with the far door. The physical Reaver was blasted far from his slack hand. The wooden door bent inwards at the impact of the dollmakers body but did not break. Elzevir crumbled to the floor spitting blood and teeth. His nose had been broken.

The sword he had dropped clattered along the floor, sliding until it came to a stop by the foot of a large teddy bear which was still standing.

.

**_"With the loss of the sword, the corporal forms of his minions seemed in doubt. They seemed to lose cohesion and break apart."_**

**_._**

Raziel watched the two Pipers sway back and forth, their pallid skin beginning to boil as if it were water, twisting around inside their frames like a smeared oil painting. In turn, the many toys around them twitched and staggered and lost much of their previous animation. As Raziel had suspected, the Lion share of Elzevir's power had indeed been augmented by the blade. Without it he could not maintain the level of the control necessary.

What happened next was something of a blur in Raziel's mind. He had started moving before he was even aware that he had been. As the doll maker looked up at him, hissing with anger Raziel had reached the blade. The temporal distortion was very strong with such close proximity. The entire room pulsated around the sword with its axis point. The sensation was the same as it had been in William's chapel, only with one large alteration. The pull to fulfil some action, either against his will or with, was absent.

As his hand reached down, the sense of temporal flux increased to fever pitch and became frantic as his hand closed around the hilt.

The two Reaver's met each other again, screaming out in greeting. Twisting and writhing like a coiled snake the wraith blade spread itself down and around the physical sword. The entrapped soul within, his own now past self, responded with a growl of awakened arousal.

**_._**

**_"With the Sword in my hand, I could feel reality twist in response to more than one of my soul being present in the same place at the same time. I was almost at the mercy of such events before and was forced to perform some predestined action which only every ounce of my willpower had permitted me to overturn. Now the tables had tuned and I was in full control." _**

**_._**

Holding the blade aloft, he watched the eyes of the skull cross glow brightly and burn with a ghostly blue fire. The serpentine blade sparked of bolts of ethereal lightning travelling down its length and pulsing with a glow that matched the temporal distortion that only Raziel seemed to be able to feel and sense.

Elzevir looked up at him, the expression of madness draining from his face to be replaced by pure and utter horror.

"Twined blades now coiled in sinister embrace." Raziel started with his voice inflected deeply and full of intent malice. "Inspire terror in the hearts of creatures of far more consequence than beyond you." Slowly he turned the sword to point its tip directly towards the frightened little man.

"This time I think I **_'will'_** see what they can do a souls fragile shell."


	40. 39 Kain Umah the Barren

With a loud ringing clang, a slender metallic figure dropped down out of the gap in the chamber's ceiling and landed between Kain and the advanced horde of possessed armour. It was another of their king and as it straightened up Kain recognised it instantly as Ashar. Moving fast the Hylden king turned and snatched the Nexus Stone out of the vampires hands. He lifted it high in one gauntlet and turned to face his fellows.

The horde stumbled back as one, the foremost scrambling desperately over their fellows to get away from the artefact. Their fiery reserve and madness had been broken at the sight of the Stone in Ashar's hands.

"No, anything but that!" The one who had been, until a few moments ago, threatening Kain with a deformed broadsword said. There was no face by which to gauge reactions but the armour was trembling in fear. "Not the spire of madness again!" Ashar grimly stepped forward, the stone out before him.

"I am truly sorry..." He said as the artefact he had created began to respond to his will. Its centre piece emitted an ethereal green illumination. As its creator, Kain supposed, he could do more with the stone in his possession. "I do this not out of spite, but out of necessity."

The Nexus Stone's glow changed from a dull throb into a blaring glare of intense light, filling the entire chamber to a brightness so intense Kain had to cover his eyes. Watching over the tops of his talons he saw the light seemingly tugging at the souls within the armoured bodies before it. All of the possessed armours had stopped frozen to the spot like a statue of ice, their glowing insides merging with the light all around them like water joining with more of itself. There were agonised screams from somewhere, the vampire could not tell where but those faded into a uniform noise that absorbed all others and rattled his bones. The light and the sound became so intense that Kain tried desperately to blot out his senses for their assaulted his brain like fire.

Then abruptly it was over. The light and roaring noise disappeared and everything was plunged back once more into darkness. Kain blinked and lowered his talons away from his face and looked out at what had happened. The armoured bodies of the horde were still standing but the interior illumination was gone and they were just empty shells. Then one by one the armours fell over, toppling backwards or forward with loud clatters to the ground. The domino effect had them falling in a continual crash until the last of them had fallen outside the chamber. The echoes of their fall resounded in the tunnels and there was silence for a long moment afterwards.

The only remaining armour still standing was Ashar himself. His interior light had not faded and he appeared unaffected by what he had just done. With his armour rattling against itself he straightened and lowered his hand with a regret filled sigh.

"It is done..." He said heavily. "All but two of the souls have been returned to the stone." Kain looked towards him sharply.

"Two?" He repeated with a heavy frown.

"Myself and another..." Ashar admitted candidly but turned to face him. The helmet was incapable of showing expressions but Kain got the impression from the Hylden king that he was distracted by intense inner guilt. "But we will get to that later."

Panting with his tongue lulling out, Ewoden stumbled into the chamber through the cluttered mess of warped armour. He was bleeding from dozens of cuts across his body and one arm was hanging limply to one side, his usually bushy tail dragging on the ground. With grunts of pain his flesh receded down as he morphed into human form, the injuries remaining stark against his pale skin. Naked, dirty and blood smeared he slumped against the side of a wall.

"I won't be doing that for you again." He told Kain with a glare towards the vampire, lips pulled down with his pain. "So don't bother asking."

"Duly noted." Kain replied just as flatly and turned away, having reassured himself the emissary's wounds were not fatal. The animosity that had grown between them would continue but for now Ewoden seemed too tired to advance it.

Ashar was looking into the stone in his hand. With another sigh he turned and handed the artefact back to Kain. The vampire looked at it and then gingerly picked the thing up, quickly attaching it back to his wrist. It slid back into place on his gauntlet with ease, connecting with some grinding clicks. The thought of so much power strapped to him were more than a little disconcerting.

"Now, as we agreed..." The Hylden king asked with a quizzical note to the end of his voice, expectant and entreating. Kain grunted in annoyance, drew in his breath and then sighed. He had been forced to agree to this in order to be shown the alternate entry to the forge chamber.

"Yes... very well." He reluctantly said, facing the Hylden king full on. Ashar approached him, and stood directly in front of the vampire. The armour laid its gauntlets on either side of his head upon his shoulders. Kain stared into the armoured faceplate before him, his face fixed in a rigid tense expression.

Time seemed to drag on in silence as nothing happened and standing there, Kain began to wonder if Ashar was indeed acting on reliable information at all. Then he felt a sharp tug, deep inside him. He could feel it right where his heart ought to be, in the cavity left by the absence of the Heart of Darkness. It pulsed inside him as if it was pushing against the boundaries of its container within. Gasping in pain he brought a hand to his chest, trying to breath and not quite able to fill his lungs each time. He could feel whatever it was within him moving, sliding painfully through his flesh, moving up his chest and past his collar bone.

The vampires neck bulged as the thing inside him began to slide back up his throat. It blocked his windpipe and Kain clutched at his neck struggling for breath.

Then with a violently wrench, the thing erupted into his mouth and then out into the air, thousands of small dark obsidian rock fragments. Vomiting up the obstruction Kain gagged and staggered back, collapsing onto his backside gasping for air and coughing hoarsely. His throat felt like he had tried sword swallowing with the Soul Reaver.

.

**_"The pieces of the stones Ba'al had so cunningly allowed me to absorb were extracted and the Hylden king viewed the pieces as if reading a book, his attention enwrapped."_**

.

Rubbing his throat Kain looked up to see Ashar standing out, hand outstretched. Over his upturned palm the fragments that had erupted from the vampire's mouth were slowly spinning around an axis, each piece glowing slightly but still showing their black obsidian material. The Hylden king's body language was rigid and alert, head tilted forward intently towards the spinning material that had once been the Tablets of Dark Fable. Kain wondered if it had been their presence inside his body that had caused his periodic attacks of numbing weakness.

Ashar ignored all else but the fragments whirling before him and Kain, despite his sore throat and irritation for that extraction, found himself waiting for him to respond.

"Oh!" Ashar started with apparent surprise, tilting his head back suddenly. Kain staggered back up to his feet and Ewoden looked up, confusion on his face.

"Ingenious!" The Hylden king declared with jubilation. He clenched his fist and the fragments swirled even faster, spinning so fast they blurred. "My faith in Ba'al was not misplaced!" He volunteered no more than that, his attention enwrapped again. Kain waited for him to speak but the Hylden king was too busy absorbing whatever information had been left for him.

"My patience and time are wearing quite thin." The vampire eventually said into the silence with some annoyance. After that painful extraction he wanted to know exactly what Ba'al had to say that would make it worth it.

Ashar turned the helmet of his armoured body to look at him.

"Yes... time..." He said a cryptically and then waggled a finger in the vampire's direction. "Ah... yes, you are running out of time."

Kain started in surprise as Ashar turned back to the fragments. He had not told the Hylden king about his need.

"Yes he explains it here... yes... yes..." The armoured figure paused and then nodded in firm confirmation. "Ah I see. We will have to act quickly to remedy this."

Kain stood there dumbfounded. He shook his head to clear himself, trying to absorb the implications but it left him feeling dizzy.

"What?" He asked instead in a state of growing shock, sounding a little stupid despite himself. Ashar gave him an amused sort of look, as much as his blank helmet allowed.

"According to the information left for me, you ought to now be suffering from a numbing weakness that if left unchecked threatens to destroy you." Once more the vampire was struck dumb. He stared at the Hylden king with mounting incredulity.

"You mean to say Ba'al knew this would happen in advance?" He asked, his voice rising as he spoke and taking on a hard and angry edge. Ashar waved a hand to despise his accusation.

"Not in too great a detail but he made arrangements." He claimed and before Kain could open his mouth to say anything else he asked something. "It says you were made a vampire by using the heart of Janos Audron and the blood of the ancient vampire race correct?" Kain paused and then nodded grimly.

"That is right..." The vampire replied and laid a hand on his chest. "But the heart was wrenched from me." Ashar appeared quite surprised by this information and glanced back and forth between Kain and the fragments he was so enwrapped in.

"And yet you live, without a heart?" He asked incredulously and shaking his head. "That is quite impossible." Kain did not know what magic's allowed him to survive and really didn't care so long as they worked and so dismissed it.

"I have no other heart." He said but was surprised when Ashar raised a finger in contradiction, wagging it back and forth.

"Oh but you do!" He said with a bit of a chuckle. "Your original heart." He laid a finger directly over the left hand side of Kain's chest. "Your human heart." Kain batted the gauntlet away irritably.

"No doubt that organ was discarded by Mortanious when he raised me from the dead as a vampire." He said.

"According to this it was not." The Hylden king cut in. Again Kain was left stunned and his eyes widened at the full implications of what Ashar seemed to be saying began to fully dawn on him.

"What are you saying?" He asked in a low tone. Ashar tuned his head to look towards the entrance to the chamber and where Ewoden was sitting up, looking at them with a puzzled expression.

"Is there an old man with you?" The Hylden king asked expectedly. Kain blinked and slowly turned and, as he had half subconsciously expected, Ezekiel was hobbling his way into the chamber clutching his arm to his side.

"I presume you are talking to me?" The old man asked, coming towards them with his voice strangely reverent and full of emotion. Kain just stared at the old man as he came right up to him. Ashar regarded the old human with a puzzled slant to his head, seemingly as if judging the worthiness of the human before him.

"You are the scion of the mortal line?" The Hylden king asked a little sceptically.

"I am." Ezekiel replied with a wide smile. He gestured with his chin down towards his chest. "And I carry the heart with me as it was entrusted." Kain glanced back and forth between them with growing irritation, frustration and annoyance causing him to growl.

"I don't understand, what is this?" He demanded, his patience finally expired. Ezekiel blinked and looked at him, surprised at having been addressed. Then he smiled ruefully and looked apologetic.

"You were quite right vampire." He said "I was not forthright with you." As Kain rankled the old man gestured around at the chamber and by extension the tunnels and the Bastion above. "I came here to this castle, expecting you."

Then he faced Kain and he straightened his back, standing with some strength and pride he had not seen the old man display before.

"I am of your bloodline." He announced in a challenging tone. "Your human bloodline." Kain stared at him with wide eyes and the old man carried on dropping the final mental blow. "I am the decedent of your sister, Ester. Her ultimate grandson."

.

**_"The implications of all of this were surging together, connecting and coalescing into a picture of cooperation between two parties I thought never knew one another."_**

**_._**

Before his eyes he remembered his beloved eldest sister giving him the last of her tasks for him, sending him south to the city of Freeport and telling him to break his journey at the uneventful town of Ziegsturhl. In fact, she had been insistent that he stop here, saying that she did not want him on the road all night.

"It was Ester who sent me south..."The vampire breathed in growing comprehension. Ezekiel nodded.

"Where you were murdered by Brigands, yes." The old man finished his thought for him. The anger that exploded from within was like an intense inferno, erasing all his thoughts and feelings and leaving him only with an incredibly powerful fury.

"She knew!" He bellowed, his yell echoing through the chamber and the passageways outside. Ezekiel stood right before him and took that shout at point blank range without flinching.

"Yes, she knew." He confirmed in a flat tone. "Mortanious the necromancer persuaded her to assist him in his efforts to purify the circle of nine."

.

**_"The sense of betrayal was a living thing throughout my entire being, every hair, every cell of my body was boiling with barely suppressed rage."_**

.

"The heart of Darkness was used to create you... but Mortanious feared your body might reject the organ." Ezekiel was explaining but Kain only barely heard him through his mounting rage. "So he placed your human heart aside for safe keeping, so that it might beat for you if your life was threatened." The old man slipped his cowl back over his head and began to unfasten his dark black cloak, loosening it from around his shoulders. "And this is the means by which you survive without a heart. You still have one, it is just not inside you."

He discarded the cloak completely and stood there naked to the waist. Across his withered, pale and nearly emaciated chest was a massive angry looking scar that ran the entire width of his torso. "I have your heart... it lies inside me." He said, laying a hand on his left breast where the scar was jagged.

"It has been passed down from generation to generation in my line and I am the last." Ezekiel said with tired reverence. "I have lived just long enough to deliver it back to you."

Silence endured then and all those around him were looking at the vampire expectedly, waiting for his reaction. Kain gave the only reaction that came naturally at that moment in time. Snarling with fangs bared he swept his arm down in a dismissive gesture.

"No... no I will not endure this a moment longer!" All his resentment for those who would use them for their own ends, sending him to suffer and die for their agendas came boiling out of him reaching the surface from their repressed bottled up state. Moebius, Ashar, Mortanious, Ariel, Ba'al and even Ester were all the same!

"Manipulation, coercion and misdirection! I will have none of it!" This time he was not going to entertain fates cruel jokes. He would walk away and let things be as they would. "I cannot trust even my own birth kin, long since perished!"

Ashar looked unmoved by the outburst.

"I had suspected you might feel that way." He admitted with a shrug. Kain spat at his feet and turned to leave.

"I will have nothing more to do with any of you!" The vampire said making towards the exit. Ashar stared after him.

"Perhaps, perhaps not." The Hylden said in an amused tone not sounding particularly surprised at all, in fact he seemed almost pleased. "But I know someone you might want to want to have something to do with." Kain froze in mid step as Ashar softly called out past him to the corridor outside. "My dear, it is time."

Something out there was, moving. He could hear it, the echoing click of metal on stone drawing closer and closer. A shape seemed to form out of the darkness, coming towards the light inside the chamber. The figure was slender and tall but not quite as tall as himself. Almost immediately he saw that it was another of the possessed armours Malek had foolishly laid out only different from the others he had seen.

Whereas those armours with a Hylden soul inside them had extruded a sickly yellow glow, this one had a pale violet light coming from within the gaps of the armour. The armoured figure strode with swaying hips betraying a feminine disposition and as she entered the light Kain could make out more details. The Sarafan armour had been warped by the possession but not in the same way the others had been. Her armour was sleek across the thighs and breastplate; engraved runes disappeared to become unblemished chrome. The helmet was made of a visor and a month guard, now delicately morphed to the proportions of a slender feminine face, engraved with arched markings across the chin and cheeks. Atop the helmet was a plume of jet black hair, tied back high and swinging down to her waist.

It did not take Kain longer then a moment to recognise who was coming towards him. It was not the unique marks on what passed for a face, nor even the more then familiar body language that informed him but rather the sense of presence; the firm and solid feeling of recognition that hit.

Kain froze rigid, head tilting back and eyes widening.

"...no..." He breathed slowly shaking his head.

The figure came right up to him, looking directly at him. She had no eyes to make eye contact but he could feel her gaze on him nonetheless, an intense penetrating stare and in that look Kain felt the whole crushing weight of judgement.

"Death in Nosgoth it seems is not a barrier impenetrable." Her voice echoed the last confirmation of her identity. Kain's very brain seemed to recoil in upon itself, grief, guilt, self loathing all released from the dam he had built within his mind to hold it back.

"You can't be here..." He began his words his last flimsy attempt at a defence. She cocked her head at him.

"Can I not?" She asked and then reached over to tap the Nexus Stone on his arm. "Do you forget Kain, that the Nexus Stone's power is so great that the soul of anyone who died close to it is drawn inside?" The vampire went rigid in the presence of the armour that held the soul of she who could have been his queen placed her hand upon his chin and forced him to regard her.

"We meet again, Kain." Umah said.


	41. 40 Raziel Homeward

Even with his power diminished by the loss of the sword, Elzevir's control over the fluctuating Pipers flickering away, they still obeyed his commands. Bringing their instruments of bone to their lips, they played their sickly duet, the sound of the discordant song commanding the dollmakers regiment of puppets to the attack. They lumbered forward, holding their arms up high with blades for claws coming out from the ends of their stubby hands.

Raziel watched the toys come towards him clinically and with a dispassionate air, his emotions turned off. Elzevir could not know the forces he had tampered with and now faced turned back upon himself. The doll maker's last ditch effort to save himself and his twisted way of life was a failure before it had even begun.

Around the blue wraith, the entire world trembled violently in reaction to the paradox caused by such close proximity of two Soul Reaver blades. The fluxuating force of the distortion so much the room around him seemed to blur.

As the largest of Elzevir's toys, a large stuffed doll shaped like a bear, came lumbering up to him clumsily swinging its arms wide; Raziel struck. With the physical Reaver in hand, he easily sidestepped the clumsy swing and sliced the puppet across the mid section. On impact, the thing burst into blue flames instantly and it fell in two pieces.

Not slowing his momentum, Raziel charged at the next toy and destroyed that one with just as much ease, carving it to pieces with the sword and allowing its energies to consume the remains. They all fell before him with ease and their advantage in numbers was quickly neutralised.

Very soon Raziel had an opening and he took it. Kicking a toy aside that had obnoxiously been trying to block his way, he ran at the pipers controlling them. The one on the left dropped his instrument from his lips when it saw Raziel was coming straight at him, raising an arm in defence. It caught the Reaver's crossbar when it came down and held the blade away from itself. Raziel pressed down firmly, pushing the blade further and further towards the creatures face.

Its comrade, still playing its pipe, leapt up with a kick aimed at the blue wraith's head. Raziel ducked, pulling the sword away and then rolled, diving underneath the attacking creature. As he did so he brought the Reaver up and around in an arch. He felt it connect and the two ethereal blades, one inside the sword and one outside screamed in unison.

One blow with the combined Reaver's was enough. The piper's entire body, sliced straight down the middle, seemed to explode out to either side. Blue fire surged across the two halves, consuming it utterly.

There was no freedom for the Archon that had been encased in the strange flesh. Struck by the Reaver, its essence went the same way as anything else dealt a mortal wound by the blade; drawn down inside and devoured.

The remaining piper, the only thing between the dollmaker and his end, stiffened and stared in what might be fear and horror at the smouldering remains of his fellow. Raziel, holding the hilt firmly in both hands, inexorably began his march towards them both.

"Attack!" Elzevir was screamed incoherently, eyes wide and face muscles twitching. "Attack, attack, kill, stab, murder!"

The piper seemed to pay him no heed but stood there staring at the remains for a moment longer before slowly raising its gaze up to Raziel. Its eyes were locked on the sword. Then without warning it leapt straight at him, spinning around itself in a blurring set of kicks aimed at keeping the blue wraith off balance and unable to find a target.

Raziel swung backwards out of range of a kick powerful enough to take his head off, lashing out with the sword in a long arching sweep. The piper arched its back to avoid the swing and Raziel pounced in that instant, leaping up high and coming down on top of the pipers face. With as much force as he could summon the blue wraith slammed his heel into the creature's skull.

With a loud crack the piper slammed into the floor and rebounded and while it was stunned from the blow, Raziel delivered the fatal thrust. Bringing the Reaver down he slammed it as hard he could into the creature's chest cavity.

Perhaps the creature's smile turned wistful as it died, essence consumed by the sword, Raziel couldn't tell. It almost looked relieved.

He put the thought out of his mind and tore the Reaver sharply to the left, slicing the creature's head and shoulders clean off.

As it fell engulfed in blue fire, Raziel turned to look up towards the real enemy. There was nothing left to shield the little man from the wraith coming towards him. The end came for Elzevir a little anti-climatically for Raziel's taste. He didn't even need to strike him with the Soul Reaver. The dollmaker's scream was cut off, blood gushing from his lips. With staring eyes wide in horror he gazed down at the sight of the blue wraith's arm stuck in his chest.

Raziel held it in there for several long agonising moment's and then with a sharp jerk he brought his hand back, dripping blood and gore. Wrapped tightly in his talon's grip was Elzevir's shrivelled heart. It thumped once outside the body and then was still.

The dollmaker died instantly, his eyes gone blank. Raziel let the body unceremoniously drop down face first onto the floor with a loud thud.

With Elzevir dead, the remaining puppet toys stiffened with him and then collapsed as well; once more mere child's playthings.

.

**_"It was done. I had fulfilled the need Alicia had set for me and destroyed her tormentor. Perhaps now the spirits of the sacrificed children might be laid to rest." _**

.

With an ethereal moan, a glob of spectral light that only Raziel could see began to float up free from the dollmaker's corpse. His soul was unfettered from his flesh and was being drawn to the spectral realm and to the wheel of Fate.

Raziel had a worse fate in mind for the detestable little man's spirit. With deliberately purpose he reached up and drew down his cowl. Elzevir's soul struggled violently to prevent itself from being in and the blue wraith almost supposed he could hear one finally shriek of despair from the little man was the energies were assimilated inside him.

As before when he consumed a soul of a powerful foe, he felt a surge of new reinforcing energy flow through him. His mind whirled with new thoughts and experiences, Elzevir's life and power intertwined and laid out for him to see. It was a repulsive life but still his wraith like nature did manage to squeeze some usefulness from it.

.

**_"By consuming Elzevir's repugnant and vile soul, not only did I end the spell of deeper and horror he had inflicted on Willendorf and the bloodline of Ottmar but some of his power was bestowed upon me."_**

.

As the power and energies resettled within himself, Raziel looked down at his free hand, flexing the talons as he worked through the new concepts he had absorbed. He placed the physical Reaver down on the ground and this time, was able to let go of the hilt without it attempting to hold onto him. The flux of temporal distortion began to subside around him as he moved away from it.

The blue wraith crossed over to one of the toys lying face down on the floor before him, still intact. He stared at the teddy bear and then reached down and laid the flat of his palm against it. He could feel the energy within and how, with the knowledge and ability, he pulled his hand up and the captive spirit within came with it. The toy twitched once and then went still again, the soul lifting free.

It stayed there, an orb of ghostly energy floating in his grasp.

.

**_"I now possessed his means to imprison a soul or spirit within selected physical objects, a skill I had no motivation to employ. But conversely, what would be imprisoned could also be released." _**

.

He drew down his cowl and absorbed the soul, which by now in its abused existence, was merely a mindless mass of energy. With that he felt himself fully restored from the excretions of the battle. He would need the strength soon, he was certain. He knew what he had to do now, which this new skill.

The doll containing the soul of Alicia still lay in the lap of her corpse, right where he had placed it. Fortuitous indeed and ironic, that the soul of the man who imprisoned her in this object, would be used to set her free.

He picked up the doll in one hand and looked at it.

.

**_"And yet here was my dilemma."_**

.

Raziel cast a glance from the doll to her dead boy. There was no hope of restoring her to life, he was no necromancer. Then he looked around at all the others toys scattered around the room, remembering the others all throughout the house and the many hundreds more nailed to trees in the outside forest.

.

**_"Releasing all these trapped souls would not free them, only condemn them to have whatever energies they had within sucked dry by my former master. A fate hardly better than corrupting possession of the dollmaker."_**

**_._**

It was a no win situation for these souls, either being rejoined to the Wheel of Fate or being entrapped forever.

**_"And yet it was better, for even with my master's appetites, he at least returned the soul to the land of the living to be reincarnated once he was done with it. That was more of a chance then Elzevir would give by hording their essence."_**

.

Raziel was firmly convinced that the Wheel of Fate was a system that had to be destroyed but now he saw that while it was the cause of so much strife in the world, it was hardly the worst fate a soul could endure.

.

**_"In this instance, for their souls to truly find peace, that dreaded Wheel must turn."_**

.

The soul was more tightly anchored to this doll and it took some effort to prey it free. The releasing mechanism seemed to be the nail crudely nailed to it and when Raziel pried that off, the soul within seemed almost to drip from the doll like water from a sponge.

Alicia Ottmar was dead, her ghostly form a faint translucent outline; the mere suggestion of a presence. She floated there no more physically real then Ariel was.

The spirit of the former balance guardian, as if summoned by that thought, manifested beside the ghost of the girl. Her face was set in its purified state and smiling sadly, she laid hands upon the translucent shoulders of the dead girl.

Alicia opened her spectral eyes and looked at Ariel, face frowning in confusion. Then she looked down at Raziel, equally perplexed. Finally she saw her body. Her ghostly form twitched and writhed back in obvious horror and stunned terror at the reality.

Ariel caught her in her arms, the two ghosts seemingly able to touch one another. She held the girl's spirit to her like she would a child and Raziel could hear an echoing despairing wail. Alicia wept for her lost life and Ariel let her cry and spill out her grief.

Then, once Alicia's wails had mollified somewhat, the former balance guardian gestured across the room to where Elzevir's eviscerated corpse still lay flat. Alicia followed her gazing and seeing her enemy and murderer dead the face of the ghost lit up with joy.

"Go now." Ariel told her softly and with great compassion. "Take the children away from this place. Let the fear that kept you bound be lifted."

Alicia was still staring at the dollmaker's body. Once she had starred her fill at the corpse, satisfied finally with having ultimately won in this game despite her death, she smiled wildly. Her expression was one of intense relief and pure joy.

"Thank you." She replied, her voice echoing as if inside an underwater cavern. Ariel let her go and slowly the spectre of the girl began to float upwards and as she ascended her ethereal body began to emit a bright glow.

From all around him, Raziel saw that a similar light pulsing from all the collapsed dolls around him. As if summoned by the freed girl and called to their liberation, the souls of hundreds of children taken over nearly two hundred years of torment floated up, unshackled from the dollmakers enchantments.

Like fireflies the freed spirits gathered in the air around him, gently floating freely upwards. The spirit of Alicia carried on up through the ceiling and the sprits followed her gleefully. As they floated free Raziel felt the house around him shudder and groan as if its supports were being pulled at.

Quickly he raced for the door, grabbing the Reaver out his way outside. As he moved through the house back to the front door he saw more of the spirits freed from the various rooms of torture Elzevir had entombed them in. Twisted dolls and toys gave up their captives.

Every single toy was releasing its hostage spirit and allowing them to float freely up and away from this dark place. Emerging outside the front door of the manor house, Raziel skidded to an abrupt stop when he saw that similar lights were rising from all around. From the forests surrounding the lake of lost souls came more souls then he could count all at once, all rising up high into the air. Turning the blue wraith saw Alicia once more, hovering high over the manor. The souls of the children were gathered all around her like a swarm and she held her arms wide to accept them.

The souls all condensed in on her and then as one, they vanished and faded away; leaving only the faint sigh of relief of her unbound soul echoing on the wind.

With her passing did the sense of decay and overbearing evil seemed to lift. It was as if the souls took the evil that had infested this place with them and with its passing, reality flooded back in to fill the void. The sense of a relieved burden almost seemed glow from everything around him.

Raziel stared after her soul for a long while, before he sighed and shook his head.

.

**_"Farewell Alicia Ottmar. If there is any justice in this world when the Wheel of Fate is done with you, your next life will be a peaceful one." _**


	42. 41 Kain Plea from the dead

The body language of the armoured figure as it came straight up to him was all the confirmation he required to make identification. There could be no doubt and that stark realisation left his entire body aching, a loss of strength far more profound then the attacks of weakness he had suffered before. In front of his eyes flashed that moment that had been burned into his memory.

He had looked into her eyes as she had died; saw the surprise, the fear, the despair and then finally oblivion as her life drained away. In his mind, it had been the only thing he could do. He was an emperor and she had betrayed him. He could not play favourites.

But eternity is hard to live alone, even when one sat upon the throne of a mighty dynasty. More than once Kain had been tempted to, in some way, use the paradox history altering affect of two Reaver's to change her fate.

As the two of them stared at each other, the three others in the chamber watched with some interest. Ashar stood there with polite attention, while Ezekiel looked a little irritated at the interruption in the series of events. Ewoden, still collapsed on the ground from his battle with the Hylden possessed horde, looked around at them with a stunned sort of amusement.

Kain ignored them all. Right now he had eyes only for the figure before him.

.

"_**My queen, or she who could have been my queen. The only soul, the one person in all of Nosgoth who could conjure remorse of guilt from me, was her." **_

_**.**_

The armour, faceless but in some subtle way able to give hints of expression, turned to look up at him with a creaking noise of metal on metal. The armour had adapted to take on the resemblance of the body she had had at the time of her death.

"Do you remember me Kain?" She asked. At the sound of her voice he flinched visibly. She tilted her head to one side, regarding his reaction.

"Do you remember what you did to me?" Kain forced himself to look directly at her, stomach clenching involuntarily.

He was disgusted by his sudden weakness. He was Kain, lord of Nosgoth, above and beyond all restraint. Even Umah would get no sympathy from him.

The lie made itself stick in his brain. Who was he trying to fool?

"If you are who you seem to be, do you really need to ask that question?" He asked instead, putting on the best facade of angry resentment he could muster. The indignant bravado had no real strength behind it. If she called him out he felt it would falter in an instant.

The armoured figure stared at him with moment for a long moment and then looked off to one side.

"No." She said with a thick layer of spite in her voice, her tone hard as ice. "Only I would never have you forgetting, not even for an instant." Kain set his jaw tight and rigid in defiance at the implications of that, some real anger feeding itself to his defence.

"Are you that cruel?" He asked with some spite, fangs barred. "That you would condemn me to eternal guilt and faltering irresolution?"

Wrath had made his tongue unguarded and he realised he had just admitted that he felt those emotions out load. He clamped his lips down shut, but not quick enough to prevent the words from escaping his mouth.

Umah, for there was no doubt that it was her now, cocked her head to one side and from her there emanated the intense feeling of displeasure and disappointment.

"Only so long as you seem hell bent on making the same mistakes!" She snapped at him, raising a gauntlet up to his face. She pointed an accusing finger at him, violating his personal space. Her very essence seemed to hum with a barley suppressed rage, far surpassing his own in its intensity and burning furiousness. Kain flinched back from it perceptibly. Seeing his reaction Umah pressed on with her words, not giving him a chance to recover.

"I told you once that there are those that are simply your allies, not your betrayers". She reminded him with mocking scorn. "But you didn't listen to me."

With a sweep of her arm she gestured out around them, indicating the place in which they stood and the situation they were in all at once.

"Just as you will not listen now, not even if it means your own survival!"

Kain cast a sidelong glance at the others and then back to her. Her mere presence was offsetting his mind, making it hard for him to coordinate his thoughts and feelings into a coherent pattern. It was a whirl of chaos inside his head to the point where he felt as if he was outside his own body, observing the events unload as if he were reading a novel and the plight of the characters. He seemed to have no control over himself, stuck to a script.

"You cannot know what I have been through to get to this point, Umah." He was saying. "Events have not given me reason to trust others with their own motives." He looked accusingly at Ashar over his shoulder.

The Hylden king tilted his head back in amused surprise.

"Even when those motives benefit you?" He asked incredulously. He held out his hand. The fragments taken from inside him, the remains of the tablets of Dark Fable were still lightly swirling over his palm, tightly condensed into a small vortex of gravel.

"I have a means of healing you, Instructions on how to proceed against our mutual enemy, handed down from Ba'al." He gestured with his other hand towards Umah negligently. "And restored to you the one being you feel you wronged, so that you might have an opportunity to clear your conscience."

His tone took on an incredulously sort of exasperation.

"What more could I possible do to earn your trust?" He asked. Kain narrowed his eyes and pushed his lips tightly together. He started when he felt Umah's hand upon one of his talons. Turning back sharply he turned to see her grasping his hand, gently but with great firmness.

"It was Ashar who kept my mind sane while trapped n the Nexus Stone's vortex." She said to him, the helmet turned up perhaps unconsciously intending that he look into eyes that were no longer there.

"He explained much about you to me, your nature and your mission."

The vampire's expression turned even more grim.

"And what do you think about it?" He asked. Umah seemed to consider her answer, pausing for a long moment. Then she replied with a hurtful non sequitur.

"I would be lying if I said I didn't resent you." She said and Kain stiffened a little. "Who can ever entirely forgive their killer?" Kain was about to respond but she held up her free hand cutting him off.

"But before I make any final judgement on that, there are some things I want to ask you. Issues I need resolved." She stated and her tone was final, commanding. That she spoke to him thus took him a little aback. It was the commanding tone of voice from a person secure in their authority.

He was so engrossed in the situation that his usual and natural disdain for being ordered around and lorded over seemed to have been negated.

Her grip on his talons was as unyielding as her attitude and manner.

"What did you do to the Cabal, in the end?" She asked in a slow deliberate tone. When Kain merely stared at her, not saying a word in answer she persisted with some vehemence. "Did you destroy them; did you have them swept aside to solidify your dominion?"

There was venom, scorn and resentment wrapped up in each word. This time Kain met her gaze, holding himself steady and unyielding, his back stiffening not with resentment but with some pride.

"No." He said shortly and was rewarded by seeing her posture lose some of its rigidness. He leaned forward and lowered his tone to a neutral one of indifference. "I exiled them."

He was almost glad to see her resolve and angry posture lessen even more and he pressed into that, deciding it was her turn to feel a little guilt and doubt.

"You thought me a callous butcher, Umah?" He asked with some anger in his eyes. "I spared Vorador and his children and sent them to a remote island chain with enough supplies to cultivate their own settlements."

He lifted his talon out of her grasp and held it pointing directly into the faceplate of her helmet where he imagines her eyes might be. "And I did it all to keep your damning condemnation of me out of my soul."

Umah said nothing to this, her armoured body held rigid and unmoving. The silence dragged on for quite some time until Ezekiel cast a glance at Ashar, looking amused.

"It would seem this pair have trust issues."

"Silence human." The vampire snapped back at him.

Ashar slumped his shoulders and shook his head.

"We are running out of time, Umah." He reminded her with some urgency in his voice. She snapped her head around to glare at him, responding to his interference with just as much vehemence as Kain had Ezekiel's.

"This is something I have waited centuries for, encapsulated inside the stone." She spat at him in fury. "Don't deny me now."

Kain considered all the emotions he had felt about Umah before and after her death. Through a quirk of fate he had been the one to vampirically sire her and it had created a bound between them, intensifying the emotions he had felt for being the cause of her death.

"Just what do you want from me?" He asked, not knowing quite what else to say. She turned her head back to look at him with a creek of metal on metal.

"Many things." She admitted. "Some of which you can't give me." She raised her hand up to chest level.

"I want to see my father, Vorador, again." She uncurled one finger from her fist. "I want a body of flesh returned." She uncurled another finger. "I want to see how my brothers and sisters of the Cabal have fared." Three fingers were held up. "I even want to see the world you fashioned for our kind." With four fingers held up she leaned forward to the point where his face and her metallic head were only a few inches apart.

"But first and foremost..." She began and her voice took on an expectant tone that left him feeling even more uneasy then before. "I want to know if you were serious."

Kain blinked.

"Serious?" He repeated, not understanding. "Serious about what?" Her stance radiated disgust for his lapse.

"Do you not remember?" She asked with scorn. "I was not so blinded by grief and pain not to take in what you said."

Quickly she took hold of his chin and tilted his head down so they were at eye level.

"I could have been your Queen." She said. "Was that offer sincere, or just some cruel joke to rub salt in a fatal wound?"

With a flash Kain realised what she was talking about, remembering that after he had dealt that fatal blow to her already fatally wounded body, he had admitted to her that if circumstances were different she could have been by his side as his queen, an empress to help him in ruling his dominion.

"Well?" She asked him again with more intensity when he did not reply. "Answer me, you who gave me the dark gift!"

Kain stood there staring at her for a long silent moment before, unbidden, a large grin parted his lips. With his fangs bared in mirth he began to slowly chuckle.

"Ambition, Umah?"He asked incredulously, barley able to control his chuckling as he lifted his head up and away. "You, a mere soul entrapped in metal aspire to rule with me?" The mere idea was a tantalising jest, the sense of humour of the fates visible once more. She stood there, rigid and determined in defiant expectation of his mockery.

"That is if your own ambitions haven't diminished?" She asked him and her voice had a certain amount of humour in it as well. "Kain, ruler of a restored Nosgoth?"

Kain chuckling began to increase, eyes suddenly alight with a devilish sort of pleasure.

"You denounced my goals as avaricious." He reminded her, still grinning. "It was the very reason you stole the Nexus Stone from me!" All the guilt and doubt gave way to an intense almost giddy sort of glee. He felt unburdened and the sensation was euphoric.

"Was the experience of entrapment within enough to change you so?"

Her stance was now jubilant at his reaction to her suggestion.

"Suspended in oblivion, the only thing that keeps one going is a sense of purpose." She stated, placing her hands on her hips.

"The Sarafan Lord is dead, their power crumbled. Vampires are free and if you do not lie, my brothers and sisters are alive and well." Her helmet glanced down, looking upon her current vessel; a body of armour once worn by men who had devoted their lives to destroying the vampire race.

"I have no intention of staying in this pitiful state forever." She said with conviction.

"One way or another, I am going to reclaim what I have lost and take more in payment for my inconvenience."

Her head snapped up sharply with a clatter and she swept up a hand to point directly at the centre of his chest. "I will not have my chance squandered by your quick temper!"

Kain finally could not contain it anymore. He let his head roll back and he roared with laughter, shoulder and chest heaving. His laugh echoed through the forge chamber and out into the corridor beyond.

"Yes!" The vampire proclaimed. He took hold of her hand in his, his talons closing around it and let his grin speak his feelings for him. "I like it!"

Umah gripped his own hand back in return, not in a regular handshake but rather in the fashion of the contact confirming their mutual understanding of each other.

"You, old man!" Kain said, looking sharply at Ezekiel, who's eyes widened in surprise at being addressed so suddenly. "You say you have my heart?"

The old man blinked and then smiled, his beard bristling.

"Ready and waiting." He said, tapping his withered chest with one emaciated hand. Kain let go of Umah's hand and walked towards him.

"Then your burden is lifted." He stated, still grinning; some of his old youthful energy and vigour returned and reflected in his expression. He almost felt like a young fledgling again, energetic and filled with vitality and purpose.

"I will be taking it back now."


	43. 42 Raziel Stain

Negligently Raziel tossed the flaming torch onto the bonfire and watched as the flames licked up to consume the body of the dead princess. Somehow he just could not bring himself to leave her corpse just sitting there like a macabre display for Elzevir's perversion. This at least had some dignity. Wood had not been hard to come by, much of the dollmakers equipment had been quite fragile and broke into manageable chunks quite easily.

It seemed somehow fitting to cremate the princess on the pyre of Elzevir's broken grip on her family's kingdom.

He watched her flesh be burned away leaving a blackened skeleton, which in turn collapsed into dust. Perhaps the memory of the original King Ottmar, the one who had stood beside Kain to turn back the Legions of the Nemesis in a now defunct timeline, would be proud of such a scion of his loins. It was a nice and innocent enough a fantasy to entertain.

The blue wraith stood there for a long time afterwards, simply watching the fire. Then he turned his head and looked across the small island to the far larger fire he had set burning some time ago. The house was by now completely engulfed in flames, tongues of fire leaping from the smoking slates on the roof. With a loud crash of collapsing timbers and a roar of an appreciative fire, the furthest half of the roof fell in on itself.

Bursts were mouths roaring with fire and from these openings came thick columns of black smoke that rose up high into the air.

.

"_**As I watched the dollmaker's house burn to the ground, I felt in some way cleansed, as if I **__**and the world around me were purified by the flames." **_

_**.**_

The burning of this abode which had seen so much evil had been entirely necessary, at least in Raziel's eyes. He would leave no trace of Elzevir and his sickening operation left to mar the face of the world.

With Nosgoth decaying as it was in this era, their area would never be fully healed. But one cancerous lump had been cut out never to return at least. He would have to be satisfied with that, for now.

As the house began to cave in, its structural supports collapsing, Raziel turned and walked away listening to the final tremendous crash as the abode smashed to the ground. He didn't look back and kept on walking.

As he past the physical Reaver blade stuck in the ground, he casually picked it up in one hand. With the ethereal Reaver now completely under his control, the distracting buzz of paradoxical flux was now only a background hum. If he were to summon it the effect would return to its normal level. He could hold it without having the world warp around him.

.

"_**With the Reaver in my possession, I **__**could put this sad affair behind me and forge ahead to my future."**_

_**.**_

He had no place to hang the blade on his person and he could not simply carry it in his hand. He had to devise some means of carrying it that would leave his hands free.

Looking around he saw that nearby lay on of the ragged clothe men he had fought upon arriving; a dirty hessian sack amidst a still and silent pile of mud and gravel. Striding over he picked up the material and examined it. Hardly belt leather but sturdy enough. With his talons he shredded it into strips and bound them together into a makeshift rope. A scabbard was impossible for such a serptine blade but tying it across the hilt and guard, Raziel slung it across his back in a similar fashion to how Kain wore it. It was not comfortable. Kain swore the Reaver with much more finesse, as if it were a part of time. Raziel was a good head and shoulders shorter than Kain so its weight on his back offset his balance somewhat. His wings with their restored bone structure kept getting poked painfully by the tip and guard.

How Kain made this all look so natural was quite beyond him.

With the blade secure, Raziel paused to take stock of his situation. Now that he had the sword he would of course have to find Kain again and return it to him. It seemed he was now in the habit of fetching items the scion of balance needed. The new role definitely rankled.

With a frown (,)the blue wraith turned and looked on towards the west, over the tops of the snowy pines towards the distant mountains, hazy at such a distance.

.

"_**There was only one place left to go. I would venture to west, high into the mountains. I would find the Oracles cave and wait there. If Kain was in this time period with me, then undoubtedly that would be where he would go."**_

_**.**_

Knowledge of the geography told him that the oracles cave lay across the mountains. He didn't know if the Chronoplast would be accessible in this era but it was the only place he could so. He muttered darkly to himself.

_**.**_

"_**Despite my resolve to aid the prophecy of the Scion of Balance, it still felt irritating to be Kain's delivery boy."**_

.

He was turning to start back across the ice of the lake when he paused, seeing a ghostly shape floating nearby. It was Ariel. The former balance guardian was staring still at the bonfire cremation of the princess Alicia. Her face was a corrupted decayed half skull, sad and grim, eyebrows knitted together in her displeasure.

Raziel was about to say something when she cut across him.

"She was selfish, self absorbed and indifferent to anything outside her own goals." She stated flatly and without any emotion. There was a long pause before she hung her head. "And yet it was her soul that freed the children from bondage."

Raziel remembered how her freed soul had brought the other captive children Elzevir had tormented free from their containers. It had been a sight to be sure. Ariel turned to look back at him over her ghostly shoulder, her eyes intent and full of a deep sadness.

"Far different from my own story." She admitted with a mocking self accusation. "I only sought balance in order to affect my own release. Almost by the end I had forgotten that the restoration of Nosgoth was the end result that was important."

Raziel considered her words. He would not lie to her about her faults but still felt keenly the need for her to be freed from her mental prison.

"Sometimes it is hard to see the clear encompassing picture if one is entangled so much in personal guilt and fear." He said, wondering how much of his statement applied to him. "Much of this conflict has been caused by those thinking only of themselves in one fashion or another."

Ariel turned to face him completely and as she did her face descended into its corrupted half skull, her good eye looking at him through wisps of ethereal hair.

"Are we any different, now?" She asked and from her tone the blue wraith felt she earnestly wanted an answer.

He considered long and hard, eyes narrowing as he looked down at the crowd. It was a difficult question to answer. He had to admit, if only to himself, that he had changed considerably over the course of his journey. When he had started out after Kain vengeance been his only goal and drive but over time his motives had become subtle and far more complex and with that complexity, came a new sort of empathy for other positions and views.

"Hard to say." He admitted eventually, hands on hips.

"What do you think?" She asked him. He looked down as if examining his toes and then looked up towards her again.

"I would like to think we are." He replied and then gave her a winsome sort of look, his eyes smiling where his missing lips could not. "Or would that be arrogantly presumptuous of me?" Then his expression grew serious.

"There was a time when I would have spurned the princess, taken the sword and been on my merry way." He said flatly. "Instead I stayed and fought, destroyed a great evil and possibly saved hundreds of innocent children from being taken from the generations yet to come." He paused as if pondering his own words and then shrugged his shoulders.

"That knowledge makes me feel proud, to whatever degree." Ariel smiled at him in response.

"As it does me." She agreed.

Absently Raziel kicked some of the pile of mud that had made up one of Elzevir's crude golems. The pebbles in the dirt skittered across the ice.

"Are we better people for it? I think it depends on our perspective." He mused, watching the stones skip away.

"Then we agree what was done he was the right thing? For all involved?" Ariel asked and she sounded a little unsure.

Raziel chuckled and looked up at the sky.

"I think perhaps we did even the Divus a favour." When Ariel raised an eyebrow at him questioningly he explained; "They would not have welcomed a snivelling, perverted worm like Elzevir into their ranks with much enthusiasm."

Ariel's smile was like the sun coming up.

"Into every life some rain must fall." She said with relieved mirth.

"How true." Raziel said and they shared a quiet moment in the midst of the joke. The moment dragged for a long time and then the blue wraith half turned, his expression unreadable to look at her;

"Ariel..." He began and his soft, sensual tone made her look at him, her expression slightly confused. He had never taken that tone with her before.

"Yes?" She asked a little warily. Raziel was silent for a moment longer and then he let his shoulder relax, but there was still some tension in his eyes. This was a topic not easy for him to start.

"We... have not always been on the best of terms, but I feel I have to say this."

Another long moment of silence.

"I...admire you." The statement came seemingly out of nowhere and Ariel started at him with wide eyes. The word 'admire' had not been said with the usual elevation it required. It had been replaced for another word, far more direct that hovered just behind it.

"I have never encountered another soul as endurable as your own and yet willing to grow and change, despite what it has gone through." Raziel continued on, watching her ghostly face. As he talked, the corruption disappeared and her complete beauty returned.

Quickly he held up a hand to forestall her when she seemed on the verge of saying something.

"I do not presume to replace Nupraptor in your affections." He said and the words came out in a rush.

Then he froze and words stuck in his throat. His mind fumbled over itself awkwardly and he went silent.

Ariel looked down at him and her face was blank, unreadable. She closed her eyes and then looked completely unresponsive. Then slowly she opened them again and her face changed and there was in her expression a look of profound wanting and a kind of need subtle need.

"Nupraptor is dead." She said and there was in her voice all the hurt for that admission, made all the more acute by the knowledge that his death had been of her design.

"As are you." Raziel reminded her in a joking sort of manner to lighten the mood. She smiled at the jest.

"And you, so to speak." She said and he cast a glance down at himself, for once noting his ruined wraith body without chagrin and revolution. The two of them remained there in each other's company, the crackling fire of the burning house behind them the only sound.

Ariel's smile faded in melancholia and she glanced out across the lake towards the far shore and the distant west.

"I will never see him again." She said flatly and there was in that statement a sort of deep finality that at last she had to confront and accept. She hung her head and for a moment, said nothing. Then her ghostly projection swung about and faced him directly and he could see in her eyes a kind of yearning, almost desperate.

"Raziel, I know you from the inside out." She said and he could feel her heart in her voice. "I shared the Reaver with you. There is no one soul tied more to mine." She paused and then added. "Even Nupraptor's."

Raziel stared at her, finding in himself a deep sort of wild hope he had never known before. It made him feel week at the knees.

"Release, absolution, final rest... all fine sounding things." The spirit of the former balance guardian carried on and her eyes, almost glowing in their ethereal nature, were full of what could only be a profound affection. "But in all honesty, I am content as a part of you."

Not knowing entirely why, Raziel reached out to her with one hand. She offered forth her own in a gesture reminiscent of the moment when she had appeared to him in the bottom of the Spirit forge and by taking her hand he had purified the Kain and ultimately the Reaver itself. He could not physically take her hand, her form a mere insubstantial projection but he held his talons against the hazy outline of her fingers and there was some sensation; like a soft breeze.

Their forging together had endured the trail by fire and it had brought them closer. They were not just joined, such a word was inadequate. They were almost quite literally one being now, as inseparable from one another.

No gesture nor words were necessary for either of them to express their connection. She was a part of his mind and soul.

"We should go. Kain is waiting for us." Raziel was eventually forced to say; disappointed that such a moment of clarity and union had to come to an end. Ariel's smile widened a little and she lowered her hand.

"So he is." She said and looked out again towards the west. The blue wraith followed her gaze, fixing on a barley distant mountain with a flat plateau top. "If we find him, I will want to talk with him." Her statement was so suddenly and unexpected Raziel did not register it for a moment. Then he turned his head sharply to look at her.

"You?"

Her face did not betray it but her eyes reflected a resolve of iron, a flash of a part of her personality that had been repressed since she haunted the pillars.

"If we are truly about setting ourselves towards our future, then we ought to leave no loose end behind us." She said and gestured back towards the burning house, which by now was being to turn into a pile of smouldering black rubble. "Kain made that mistake here and you had to correct it for him." The cellars support collapsed with a crackle of embers and masonry, forming a pit of black sludge.

"Truly." Raziel agreed but with some grim resignation. He could see this proposed meeting all too clearly in his mind's eye. It would most likely not bode well.

Ariel seemed to sense his hesitancy and her form drifted down until it was eye level with him, making sure he made eye contact with her.

"Kain and I must have our grievances aired and confronted." She told him, smiling fondly. "After that..." Then her hand reached up to the top of his head.

With her ghostly fingers she trailed down across his forehead, over the tip of his nose and then down to where his lips ought to be.

They lingered there and Raziel felt himself feeling very odd again.

"...it is our time." She finished and then her form flickered and vanished. He could feel her resettling herself back into its snug and by now comfortable place within his soul and feeling her wrapped around his essence, it felt right.

Warmed within by a sense of completion, Raziel started out across the ice towards the west. It would be a long journey that on foot would take several days, but if he kept to back-roads and trails he ought to avoid men or even the patrolled of the pseudo Sarafan who ruled Nosgoth in this era.

Of course there was the danger that he might not be able to get into the Oracles cave at all. He had entered there only once before, far in the distant future. Changes to the geography between now and then were bound to happen so there was no guarantee that just because the Chronoplast chamber was accessible in the future that it always had been.

Still it was the only logical place for Kain to go, although irrationally he wondered what would happen if he got there and Kain did not show. It would take him a very long time indeed to puzzle out the controls of the time streaming device. He didn't care much for that alternative.

Soon he reached the far bank of the lake and moved on up into the trees. The dolls that had been nailed to each trunk had dropped off and fallen to the ground. The porcelain ones had smashed open. The faces of the toys staring up at him were just that, the faces of toys; red rosy cheeks stitched faces.

There was no hint of horror, fear or any other emotion in the sequin and button eyes that stared back at him. These were empty shells. The curse of Elzevir had indeed been lifted. Raziel paused to look back once at the lonely little island in the middle of the lake of ice and then resolutely turned his back again and walked off.

The future, and Kain, awaited.


	44. 43 Kain Human Blood

Kain stood facing the shrivelled old man with a grim expression. Around the both of them, Ashar was busy scratching a strange arcane circle into the ground. It was a complex encircling display with many rune like patterns and markings. From the style Kain could see it was a pattern not of Hylden make, but rather a design done in the artistic style of the ancient vampires. Possibly Ba'al had even past the knowledge of this magic onto the Hylden king through the fragments Kain had carried inside him the whole time.

The vampire knew of some magic, ancient and modern, but the exact nature of this circle surpassed his knowledge. When he did not know how the mechanism that would change him so much worked it left him feeling very uneasy.

He was entrusting his life to a Hylden which perhaps was not the possible sensible idea in the world. Still, with his body dangerously weakening and a promised remedy at hand, what choice did he have? He cast a sidelong look back over his shoulder at Umah, standing there off to one side. She had no eyes but he could tell she was watching him unblinkingly.

Their union was not what he imagined it might be, had he ever suspected even for a moment there was a way for her soul to evade the death of her body. It caused him no small amount of mixed emotions, the chief amongst them being a kind of jubilant confusion. That she did not bare him unequalled malice for the taking of her life was cause enough to be relieved. That she hinted as her desire to be with him, as an empresses, if need be was an event so cataclysmically wonderful that Kain almost felt as if he could break the back of the false god with his bare hands.

Briefly, the sceptical and argumentative side of him rang its alarm bell, warning him that it was altogether possible she was using his feelings of guilt to manipulate him. He smiled at that. Of course she was manipulating him, but not in the way his age old paranoia thought she would. Umah was perhaps the one person he could trust to be true to her motivations. Even Raziel did not have that single-mindedness.

All prior experience told him to abandon this idea was treat her as he treated any player in the game; with scepticism, scorn and the utmost watchfulness. His instincts however which he trusted more than his experience, was telling him something else; that this time, perhaps ONLY this time, he could let his defences drop.

Ashar finally finished his scratching and stood up to admire his work and check it for mistakes. The circle was very complex and interwove about itself like a braid in a woman's hair. There were four larger symbols set like the four points of a compass.

Kain recognised two of them from his studies of ancient vampire culture. There was the symbol for joining to his left and directly across from it was another marking indicating unity. The other two, one at his feet and the other at Ezekiel's he did do know.

"Once I begin the ritual I cannot stop." Ashar told them both, standing just outside the outer edge of the design with his hands clasped together in front of him. His helmet turned to regard the old human levelly. "If you wish to preserve your life, human, now is the time."

Ezekiel actually looked surprised by the offer.

"Preserve my life?" He repeated with a raised eyebrow. "What for?" He looked at them each in turn then gestured, somewhat theatrically, at his emaciated chest.

"Look at me. I'm an old shrivelled wreck of a man." He declared and there was a bitter self mockery in his tone. "Even if I did turn away all I'd have to look forward to is perhaps another year of life before I die in my sleep."

That was perfectly true and the briefest glance at the old man was enough to confirm his words. Ezekiel was an old man by human standards, possibly ancient and he was approaching the end of a life filled with pain. The old human lowered his arms wearily then forces himself to stand as erect as possible, his back stiff, chin up and his eyes proud.

"Duty brought me here but only my will can make it so." He told Ashar. "Do it. Let my ancestor's line die with the dignity of my choice."

Kain felt a surge of unbidden respect for the old man. Few humans he had ever met had displayed such courage, especially in their dotage.

Ashar began to raise his hands, spreading them wide over the edge of the design with his face lowered reverently to the floor. Kain knew the beginnings of an arcane rite when he saw one and quickly he held up a restraining talon, taking a step out of his intended place for the ritual.

"One moment." He said, catching the Hylden kings attention. Ashar hesitated and the helmet he used for a head looked up quickly with the clink of metal on metal.

"Kain, time '_is_' of the essence." He said pointedly. The vampire fixed his gaze on the old man before him.

"This will not take long." Kain assured him, crossing over to the perplexed looking human. Ashar lowered his hands back down with a resigned sort of grunt.

"Very well." He acquiesced grudgingly. Kain strode across the carved platform on the floor until he was perhaps only a few inches away from the old man.

There was a long protracted moment of silence as the two of them stared at each other,

"Ezekiel, you claim to have knowledge of my sister." Kain began in a deliberately neutral tone of voice.

Ezekiel shrugged with the creaking of old bones.

"Ester was my ancestor." He said in an offhand sort of way. "It was she who charged her descendants to guard the mortal heart of her brother."

"Why?" Kain asked in as direct a voice as he could manage. Ezekiel smiled at the bluntness and managed to look amused.

"Is love for her brother so alien a concept for you?" He asked with an arched eyebrow, cracked lips apart in a grin Kain squinted at him with an incredulous expression.

"Love?" He repeated with some heat. "She conspired to have me murdered."

Ezekiel did not appear overly upset by Kain accusation and spread his arms in a mollifying sort of gesture.

"The necromancer convinced her that the end of your mortal life was inevitable and necessary, a preordained event." He said. "But that she could help preserve your existence in your new state." He looked the vampire directly in the eye. "I am the lifeline she made for you."

There was no pride or arrogance in his voice. He said it was if he were stated cold hard fact and Kain saw that it was not the duty itself that he took pride in but rather in the action of carrying it out, the fulfilment of a trust given to him.

Ezekiel's gaze did not waver from his for an instant.

"She did it all for you, the only one of her brothers she ever really loved." Kain stood there motionless remembering that brief blip of time when he had been a human adolescent, growing up having to scheme against his elder brothers to remove them from the line of succession and protecting himself against the plots of his younger ones. Eventually he had won out over them all and had survived till manhood, all thanks to the protective hand and guidance of his sister.

There was an opportunity here, however slim, to speak with her essence through the old man. The vampire knew it was a silly sort of thing to entertain but he smiled at the old man.

"If, perchance, you meet her on the other side..." He began somewhat whimsically, his grin showing off his fangs. "...tell her that she is forgiven."

Ezekiel looked at him pointedly and then he too began to grin, lips parted in the shared mirth.

"I will do that." He promised with equal whimsy. With a chuckle bubbling in his throat, Kain turned and proceeded back across the ritual marking to his designated position.

That had been the final thing to set straight in his mind, the last thread to cut with his past. The final cords were being cut that linked Kain the human, Kain the vampire and the Scion of Balance, so that he might finally take the role he wished to take, rather than being forced to slip back and forth between them.

"Now Ashar, you may proceed." He said, gesturing for the Hylden king to resume where he had left off as he resumed his place and stance. Despite lacking a face, Ashar seemed to roll his eyes in exasperation. He fixed his metallic arms and held them up into position once more. His head hung again and slowly he let his fingers uncurl, palm down towards the circle.

Kain felt his body tense involuntarily and violently he forced it to relax. His anxious mind however stubbornly refused to unbend and remained as tightly wound as a spring.

Ashar began to mutter something under his breath, the word coming rapidly and so quiet that the vampire could not make them out. It was a rumbling blur of words in a language that was only faintly familiar and perhaps, if he listened careful enough, he could hear the recognisable words from the ancient vampire tongue.

As Ashar began his incantation the chamber began to visibly darken, shadow lengthening and growing more distinct. The temperate began to drop dramatically, the breath of those in the chamber with living bodies turning visible in white puffs of vapour.

Then from below came a light, pale and tenuous at first and then with growing strength. Turning to look down Kain saw that the design etched beneath his feet was emitting the glow, the lines outlined in a luminous pulsing aura.

That aura grew brighter and brighter until it stung the eyes to look at it. Flinching, Kain held his talons in front of his face and squinted hard.

Ashar's mutters were growing louder and he slowly descended until he was on one kneel his hands held out over the carving. Then quite suddenly, he reached the crescendo of his incantation and his whisper turned into a vast shout on the last syllable. As the sound of his voice echoed through the chamber, he brought his hands down on the floor.

When they connected with the symbol etched before him, the light became a blinding suddenly flash.

Everyone around him seemed to vanish in that flash, devoured by the light. Kain yelled out and clasped his hands over his eyes trying to keep it from blinding him but the intensity of his burst through his talons.

Every one of his senses seemed to be assaulted all at once. He could feel the light searing his skin .He could hear only a vast roar in his ears. He could taste only a distasteful metallic tang on his tongue. His nostrils seemed to be invert and no scent carried to him. His eyes were an agony even when closed.

Then the light seemed to dim a little but maintain a painful presence. Kain risked opening an eye, peering out through the gaps in his talons.

Both he and Ezekiel were engulfed, surrounded and encapsulated by a sphere of light; a powerful nimbus that enclosed them so utterly it was impossible to see beyond it. The outer edge of the carving upon the floor was all the ground they were permitted to use while inside and it seemed as if the glowing sphere were being made and sustained by the markings themselves, the light feeding up into the surrounding sphere.

The ball of light swirled with many colours, reds and greens crossing with yellows and violets all mixing together and criss-crossing back and forth. As each pearl of colour flew in its orbit it was accompanied by a swelling whistling that seemed almost but no quite like human speech, the accent unmistakably Hylden. Where these the souls of the Nexus Stone which Ashar was using as necessary energy for the ritual to succeed?

Ezekiel stood there looking around at the encircling light with a reverent expression on his old wizened face, as if he beheld the face of god in his final hour.

Then the pain began.

It started as no more than a strange sort of pressure he could feel just beneath his collar bone, a rough spot nearly sensitive. Then that sensation grew, the pressure and feeling of '_**pushing out**_' became stronger and stronger.

Kain caught his breath, clenching his teeth together with fangs backed as he felt his very chest began to pulse. He clutched at his chest with both hands as if trying to keep his insides from bursting out. It was an incredible agony that made his precious bouts of weakness and loss of strength seem meaningless by comparison.

Inside his own body, he could feel bits of his own flesh seem to rip and tear from the inside out, always pushing forward. It felt as if the bones of his very ribcage were party to this attempted desertion.

.

"_**I felt my body squirm and writhe. It felt as if the veins and arteries riddling my body were alive and wriggling like a constricted snake. The dull ache in my chest threatened to grow, to envelop me and destroy me. Death waited patiently off to one side, watching my struggle for survival with unblinking eyes and infinite resolve." **_

_**.**_

On the far side of the engraving, Ezekiel was gasping and writhing almost brought to his knees by what could only be the same sensation.

Then, there was blood. All Kain's mind was able to register in that moment was the presence of a lot of blood. Then when his other senses intruded themselves on him and his mind started to take details, he slowly turned his head to look down at his own chest. His ribcage had spontaneously bent open, swung wide like a rusty gate. His inside organs were on horrible display, a deep black cavity between his heaving yellow lungs where a heart should be.

Blood splattered in thick steaming puddle before him, gore and worse dripping from his hideously large wound.

On the far side of the sphere of light away from him Ezekiel stood there, swaying from side to side. Kain looked up despite the agonising pain to see that the old human's chest had burst open as well. He had the usual arrangement of internal organs, but with one exception. Underneath a heart that looked grey and tired, was a stronger larger one that beat with far more firmness and strength.

So there it was, his human heart, the heart Mortanious had removed from him the day he had become a vampire.

Suddenly, the thick blue veins encrusting that heart reared like a snake, detaching themselves from the old man's flesh. With a sudden stabbing motion they seemed to lance impossible out, crossing the distance between them. With a crunch those veins bit deep into Kain's own body and burrowed in. The pain was increased tenfold so sharply the vampire's entire being swam on the verge of unconsciousness, slowly tipping over.

_**.**_

"_**Soon all thought was impossible and I surrendered to the oblivion of the pain." **_

.

.

.

Outside the bubble of light, Ashar gave a grunt of collapsed down to both knees; although he kept his hands rigidly against the side of the sphere; keeping the ritual going. His metallic body trembled loudly, clattering against itself.

"Ashar!" Umah proclaimed, starting to come to his side.

"No!" He barked savagely at her, forcing the girl to come to a sudden stop. "Do not interrupt me!" Umah's own armoured body halted in surprise at his vehemence.

"This is a complicated collection of forces I am attempting to control!" He told her, his voice strained and tired. "It is... taking... so...much effort!"

Suddenly, there was a loud sullen boom from high above. It echoed down through the very rock above the ancient Hylden complex and shook the ground in a slight tremor that disturbed some dust into rising clouds.

"What was that?" Umah asked shrilly and in great alarm. Ashar ignored the disturbance and kept his attention and mind fixed as much as he could on the sphere.

"I cannot be interrupted Umah!" He reminded her again.

There was another boom from above, and then another, and another; each succeeding one louder and more disturbing than its predecessor. The last one was so loud its echo caused some of the discarded pieces of Sarafan armour flying about the chamber to rattle.

From down the corridor leading to the forging chamber, a thick, muscular and furry shape came quickly bounding. It leapt into the chamber, even as it did so quickly reverting back to its human form; the man who ignored nakedness.

Ewoden, the Lycanthrope emissary, took only a minute to catch his breath before he began to splutter at them.

"Whatever you are doing, you had best hurry it up!" His face was pale and eyes wide, white with fear.

"I can't!" Ashar hissed at him without turning around. "It's taking all my strength to do this!"

Ewoden shook his head vehemently his demeanour and attitude like a frightened rabbit being hounded by foxes.

"You don't have the time for this!" He said in a near panicked rush. "The castle up above us is under attack!"

At this Ashar did look back.

"What?" He demanded, turning his head to look around sharply at him. He kept his hands firmly pressed to the side of the bubble of light.

"Who's attacking?" Umah asked in alarm.

Ewoden looked amused, but also quite sick.

"Who else?" He asked almost weekly. "The Divus of course!"

There another loud boom from above and this time it as easy to recognise the origin of the sound and vibration, the impact of an intense projectile against solid stone.

"Homunculi are invading the mountaintop in the hundreds, all armed for battle." Ewoden continued and he laughed, almost hysterically. "I have seen them, I know the home garrison of Fanum-Divus when I see it!"

He gestured directly up.

"Raziel-Divus himself has come to destroy us!"


	45. 44 Raziel Equinox

From the crest of the mountain range the valley which held the distant lake of lost souls was too dark to see any details. Raziel did not spare the place so much as another glance and kept the form lair of the dollmaker firmly behind him. Instead he stared out at the deep mountainous terrain that formed the northern spine of Nosgoth.

Many places of worth were hidden in these mountains, the nearest one being Janos Audron's old sanctuary. He could not see the aerie from here but down below perhaps a league or two away was a point of reference.

.

"_**In the valley below me I beheld the town of Uschtenheim. I had been here before on my quest to find Janos for the first time. The landmark gave me my bearings. The Oracles cave lay across the valley directly to the west." **_

_**.**_

It would be a long trek of perhaps several days, perhaps a little less if he ran the entire way. Raziel decided against that though. He was too mentally worn out from the events of the last few days to even contemplate raising the concentration necessary to maintain that level of exertion. Besides, there was no need for it. He had time to afford a leisurely stroll and if Kain was waiting for him there, the blue wraith felt perfectly happy in making him wait.

Pausing only long enough to adjust his makeshift harness for the Reaver blade, Raziel began down the steep slope into the valley.

He wanted to avoid the settlement and any possible patrols of the pseudo Sarafan of this era so he swung wide to the north, making his way up onto a ridge at the edge of a cliff. It was a near level path over the basin valley to the far side and it suited Raziel to take this route, albeit with some struggling up over large jutting boulders. From this vantage point, Uschtenheim was a collection of decrepit and tumbled old buildings which only a few lights from the barely habitable structures left standing. Another generation and the township would be completely abandoned.

The scene seemed to fill Raziel was a subtle and profound longing. Perhaps, somehow and someway he and Kain might see life restored to the dead Nosgoth of their own time. Perhaps it was not too late to restore the destroyed Pillars. The optimism seemed to stick in his throat and he quietly pushed the hope aside. Perhaps a way to such a grand outcome was possible, but until he knew for sure he would not torture himself with foolish whimsy.

Mounting a rocky precipice, Raziel paused to check his bearings. He had left the valley with the run down settlement behind now and he was looking down across the plains to the south. The air was clear and he could see for leagues. Willendorf was a pale smudge on the horizon, the lake of serenity a mere few sparkles of light on the waters. The remnants of the black termagant forest were turning to swamp in the distance directly to the south.

A large bank of thick cloud were gathering high to the south west and amongst the boiling expanse of that gathering bulk were flashes of lightning. A storm was brewing and already he could feel the air around him grow cold and oppressive. Perhaps he ought to quicken his pace. If he hurried he might make it to the cave system before the weather turned intolerable.

Then the blue wraith frowned at the oncoming storm front. He was no scholar on the nature of meteorology but something was not right about it. The storm cloud was building higher and higher rather more than spreading out. Nor was he hearing any thunder which he should have by now.

Turning slightly Raziel looked up at a straggly brown bush clinging to the rough side of the cliff face above him. Its leaves were all turned in the wrong direction. The wind was blowing from east to west and yet the storm cloud was moving towards him.

Then suddenly the cloud began to crackle with angry bolts of lightning that emitted an intense red glow. The sparks surged around a single deep point within the cloud and that single point was a star of blood red in the darkness. From this star a beam of light descended down towards the earth, highlighting a distant mountain peak.

This particular mountain was larger at the base then the others and ended with a level top, a flat plateau.

.

"_**Based on my knowledge of the geography, that spire was the flat topped plateau upon which stood Malek's Bastion; the abandoned stronghold of the guardian of conflict."**_

_**.**_

The beam of light grew more intense and the cloud above seemed almost to grow angry, its darker colouring highlighting the brightly of the blood lightning. Even from this distance Raziel began to hear a deep thrumming snarl like a cornered beast ready to bite.

.

"_**The longer I stared, the more I felt growing within me a strange compulsion that only made its intentions known after I began to move." **_

_**.**_

Backing up several feet to give himself room for the act Raziel leapt from the top of the precipice and into open air. Grasping the edges of his wings only by instinct he dived directly into a powerful updraft and was carried up soaring into the sky. The gift of Marduk's soul had restored some of the bone structure to his wings and as he met the air, the enhanced structures snapped out and carried up aloft like a kite.

The blue wraith had performed the entire action in a moment of intense compulsion and after it had past, he floundered awkwardly for a moment finding himself flying on the air current high above the floor of the canyon below.

"Raziel, what are you doing?" Ariel's voice asked him in a startled tone from inside his head as he struggled to confront himself in the winds.

"I don't know." He confessed trying to recall all that he had learned about flight during the brief time after he had grown wings during his dark gifts evolution and before Kain had ripped them off. He had tried to glide before of course, using his enhanced wings to fly from Vorador's island back to the mainland on his way to confront Ishtar in his Ziggurat tower.

That time he had been flying with nothing but his own safety to worry about. Now he was carrying the Reaver on his back and the makeshift strap he had made to carry it flapped about and stretched alarmingly.

"Hardly reassuring." Ariel replied dryly.

Raziel ignored the comment as he slipped out of the air current, his flight turning into a glide. Gracefully he began to descend towards the ground. Perhaps in time more bone would grow into his wings allowing him to properly fly but for now a powered glide was the best he was going to get out of them.

"I can only tell you we need to be there, quickly." He said, gesturing with a nod of his head towards the distant mountain and the unnatural storm over it.

Then the blue wraith intersected another air current and was carried forward at an alarming pace, the ground whipping past underneath him. Angling his arms up to let his wings get the pull forced of the flowing air, the blue wraith regained some elevation. The rushing wind was so loud he could barely hear himself think and it stung his eyes making it difficult to concentrate.

Slowly the storm grew larger as he approached and the mountain became more defined. From the vantage point of the air Raziel could see that he had not been mistaken in identifying the location, for he could see the dark remains of a castle atop the plateau. The red beam of light was illuminating the entire structure. Bolts of lightning were travelling down that shaft of light to smash into the castle with vicious force, blowing stone blocks away from the fort with each impact.

Knowing that he didn't have enough elevation to glide all the way to the top of the mountain, Raziel angled himself down in mid air to make for the foothills of the rough terrain.

He came down with a loud heavy thump into the dirt and he rolled twice before he could sink his talons in to stop himself. His crash blew up a large cloud of thick dust that hung in the air.

The landing had dazed him but he shook that off quickly enough and turned sharply to look up towards the mountain. It was still perhaps a mile away but the looming storm cloud above dwarfed it immensely and now that he was cloud up Raziel could determine for sure it was not of natural origin. Some alien force was driving the phenomenon and the anger in that force was expressed in the shattering lightning that carved large scars in the side of the peak. Climbing back to his feet, the blue wraith paused only long enough to readjust the clothe strap across his shoulders before making towards the mountain.

The hatred and bitterness in the air was palpable and also quite familiar. Actually it was more than familiar, it was omnipresent in his mind and Raziel began to have a sinking feeling that he knew what was happening.

Suddenly the dust from the ground he had blown up in his landing began to stir. The thick particles of dirt moved fast in an invisible wind that had dozens of small tornados of particles swirling before Raziel could even turn around. These spinning dust particles began to condense together, substance forming out of the wind and each twister creating a human shape.

.

"_**Confirmation of my darkest suspicions came rising from the dust and the dirt all around me. Homunculi, servants of the Divus." **_

_**.**_

They grasped sword, axes, spears and other antiquated archaic weapons of all kinds and with a uniformity that showed their complete lack of any individuality they formed into tight ranks.

Those baring large shields came forward first to form an impenetrable wall with spears jutting out between the gaps.

An officer uniquely was identifiable with a plumed helmet and check guards and it gestured at Raziel with its short blade.

"Mors mortuibus!" It declared in a flat emotionless voice. Acting upon that command the other homunculi lunged forward all at once. Raziel rolled under the stabbing points of the spears, ducking between their feet. He slashed out at he rolled, raking his talons across the ankles of the two on either side.

Easily he sliced through the terracotta skin of the creatures and out of the gaping wounds poured the foul smelling liquid interior. Losing their balance the two homunculi toppled backwards onto the ground with a thump. Before they could rise Raziel was on them, gripping each of them under the chin with his talons and tearing their faces off.

Three more charged at him from either side and behind, two armed with swords and the third with an axe. Turning the blue wraith rushed at the nearest of them and flourished the wraith blade as he ran. Calling upon the sword with he carried the physical incarnation upon his back caused the faint distorting effect to blossom into a full temporal flux. The world around him rippled and flowed like water making it difficult to judge distances.

The homunculi brought its sword around in an arch attempting to stab him in the chest. Raziel griped the creature by the shoulder and pulled it closer; driving his ethereal weapon directly up into its head. The head promptly exploded into fragments of liquid and terracotta pieces.

Kicking the body backwards, Raziel turned in time to avoid a swing from an axe that would have taken his head off had it connected. The homunculi with the weapon raised it high and then brought it down savagely with speed no human could manage. Raziel dodged to the left and brought the wraith blade up sharply. Its ghostly edge cut through the hands holding the weapon and the axe spun away into mid air.

Raziel caught it in his free hand and then slammed it repeatedly into the literally disarmed homunculus. Once the creature toppled backwards the blue wraith spun and hurled the weapon into the face of the third attacker. It impact spilt the head of the homunculus in half with a loud splatter.

"Behind you!" Ariel's voice cracked at him like a whip and he instantly spun to face five more homunculi advancing on him with lances. Together they ran towards him with their shields out protectively.

Raziel rushed at them, leaping directly at them. Catching hold of the top of the shield before him with one hand he vaulted over the top of it and came down on top of the homunculus holding it. The creature staggered back at the unexpected weight on its shoulders, knocking the others out of formation.

Quickly the blue wraith slid down its back, raking his talons as he fell so he slide the homunculus open down its spine. He acted quickly so the others did not have time turn to turn their heavy shields around to protect themselves.

Flourishing the wraith blade he sliced one of them in half across the middle before half turning to face another. Raising his free hand he sent the strongest bolt of condensed telekinetic directly into his exposed chest. At point blank range it punched a hole directly through and the upper half of the homunculus collapsed in itself with a wet crunch.

The officer raised its hands together; cupping them in front of its chest and between its arched fingers a spark of energy began to pulse. He smacked its hands together and then drew them apart again sharply, that spark of energy expanding rapidly into a sphere of force.

Raziel turned sharply catching sight of the attack the moment before it was thrown at him. He had only a split second to act. He twisted his entire body to leap out of the way and even as he did he reached out with his mind and grasped the last homunculus before him in a telekinetic grip. With a blast of force he threw the sprawling creature directly into the oncoming energy bolt.

The bolt exploded on impact and the homunculus flew to pieces that scattered everywhere followed by a thick cloud of dust and debris. That worked to Raziel's advantage, a perfect smoke screen that allowed him effortlessly rush in close.

The officer was raising its hands to try another back, turning its head this way and that to try and find a target. He saw Raziel only at the last second when the blue wraith slashed at the homunculus over and over with the wraith blade.

The officer stayed on its feet for only an instant before its body broke apart into large chunks and collapsed in on itself.

As the dust began to settle Raziel looked around for another of the creatures to fight but they were all dead, a mess of stinking liquid and terracotta pieces. Somehow Raziel doubted that this small force was all he would encounter of their kind.

Suddenly there was a loud flash from high above near the pinnacle of the mountain. Raziel turned sharply to look up. The storm cloud above had opened up, a vortex like hole opening up in its underside. That vortex emitted a glow of red that seeped almost like blood. Bursting out of that hole came a figure that Raziel could see even at this distance; a figure with huge black feathered wings. It stayed aloft, flapping its wings to keep in one place. The distant body gleamed in its armour and grasped in one hand it held a blade and on his other arm sparked a glowing blue shield.

.

"_**And there he was, my ultimate shame, the reason I strove to better myself... so that I could truly say I was not him, that I was better than him**_. _**Raziel-Divus, king of Fanum-Divus and scribe of heaven." **_


	46. 45 Kain Those who came before

The armour was made of the finest metal alloy ever forged in the smelters of Fanum-Divus and painstakingly engraved in gold and silver with every one of the thousand symbols that represented the names of god. The sword was likewise endowed with exquisite workmanship, the metal had been folded a hundred times and then reinforced with a sheet of gold and silver. The blade sparks with the red lightning of the storm around him, highlighting his angular features with deep shadows.

On his other arm, the shield of the three divines hummed in anticipation of battle. Constructed for him when he had first turned to the worship of the one true god the shield was tailor made to his own soul. None but himself could wear the shield and not perish. Top his head was the elaborate golden crown of Fanum-Divus, worn by the king and the scribe of god.

The face of the king of the Divus was set into a granite hard expression of hatred and righteous anger, eyes burning with fanatic zeal.

This same fanaticism had been the driving force between the thousand year conflict between the Hylden and the ancient Vampires which had left millions dead and the land drenched with blood. The scribe of heaven, king of Fanum-Divus and the first acolyte of the Elder had plunged the world into a chaos and devastation and he would repeat in the name of his god in a heartbeat.

"Children of the dust!" He proclaimed in a voice that cracked like the boom of thunder. With the tip of his sparking blade he pointed down towards the ruins of Malek's bastion far below. Even before he did so columns of dusts, a multitude of swirling vortexes of particles, were already condensing into a vast army of terracotta figures. The home garrison of Fanum-Divus were formed of legions of homunculi, uncountable numbers of archaic golems grasping sword, axes and spears. They appeared one by one all across the mountains surrounded the bastion. The thick snow did not sway them as they turned as one to face the ruins and began to march in step towards it. Those of their kind that appeared inside the ruins themselves moved quickly to find and penetrate the hidden entrances to the underground tunnels to allow the rest to move in swiftly for the kill.

Out of the gap in the sky came two more figures that flew down to flank Raziel-Divus on either side. On his left was the massively heavily built Metatron-Divus, holding his obsidian hammer in his hands and hovering protectively behind his master. To his right was the boyish and effeminate Asmodeus-Divus. Far more slender and wiry of frame, Asmodeus wore silver armour across only his shins and lower arms. His weapon of choice was a morning star, a ball on a thick silver chain studded with curved sharp spikes. It hung at his waist negligently but his hand was always poised near its handle ready to snap it up.

"Oh, how very crude." Asmodeus remarked flippantly, looking around at the environment with a disdainful expression. "I always thought this era was a bit rugged."

"Rugged or not, this is where the enemies of our king have gathered." Metatron said flatly and without emotion, heaving his hammer up to rest across one of his beefy shoulders. "For our sovereign, they will be destroyed!"

"Yes yes." Asmodeus replied unenthusiastically, waving a hand at him in a dismissive gesture. "Fight, crush, destroy and all that."

Raziel-Divus ignored their banter

"Sweep this mountain clean!" The king of Fanum-Divus commanded, swinging his sword across sharply in a commanding gesture. "Leave no living thing! Not even a single blade of parched grass is to be left alive!"

The homunculi continued their march trampling wide paths through the near frozen snow towards the towering bastion. The sound of their synchronized march shook the ground with a steady measure beat.

Asmodeus cast his near deranged king a sidelong glance and then a short knowing smile past unseen on his lips.

"Cleanse them so that I may face destiny with whatever dignity they have left me!" That last command was delivered in a voice that ranged on the edge of mad hysteria and it echoed for miles, even deep underground to the forging chamber.

Ewoden had reassumed his lycanthrope form and his ears were pricked forward, listening to that echoing scream and the increasingly loud thump of the oncoming armies. Behind him, the bubble of light that had enveloped Kain and the old man continued to pulsate and writhe. The ritual was not yet over and Ashar was on his knees, his armour body shaking and trembling as he tried with all his strength to keep it going. Beside him, Umah stood there watching events unfold with a sort of helpless frustration.

"It ...is... almost ...complete..." The king of the Hylden wheezed, straining to hold his head up. The inner light of spirit from within his armour was ebbing dramatically, sometimes appearing as little more than a faint glow. He turned slightly to look at her and even without a face he looked desperate.

"Umah... please... help me." He said. Instantly she was kneeling beside him, not touching him for she did not want to risk spoiling the enormous concentration required.

"Yes, what do I do?" She asked of him in a quick voice. Ashar looked back at the bubble before him. Smoke was starting to rise from around it, a thick red smoke that turned black when it reached the ceiling curling and boiling thickly.

"Keep me ...protected, unmolested... until it is done." He said, redoubling his efforts on the ritual with some vigour. "This must not... not... be interrupted for any r...reason!"

Ewoden snorted derisively and looked out past the door again into the dark corridor beyond. The resonating thud of approaching doom grew louder each time. It reached such volume and resonance that some discarded pieces of armour still lying on the floor began to clatter. The floor vibrated slightly each time.

The lycanthrope emissary squinted and then pulled his canine lips apart into a malicious sort of grin.

"Despite my immortality, I never did want to live forever." He said and then a quick bound he leapt into the darkness to halt the advance of the insidious homunculi.

Umah watched him go and she hesitated instead of following him. If she left Ashar would be vulnerable to attack with nobody near to ensure he was left alone. As much as she deplored letting their werewolf alley fight by himself, she could not risk leaving the Hylden king unguarded.

Grimly she took up her position by the door, snatching up a sword from the grumbled remains of one of the possessed Hylden horde and stood guard before it so that none might pass her.

.

_**The pain faded and some semblance of sanity and rationality seemed to return to me. My senses reconnected and I found myself not in the present, but far into the past." **_

.

Kain took in a shuddering breath as he opened his eyes, his body feeling as cold as the touch of snow and ice. Everything about him was flimsy as if he was looking at it from underwater and sounds were strangely muffled. Vainly he looked this way and that but everything around him was a nebulous blur of grey and white.

"Where am I?" He asked out load. "What is this?" Even the sound of his own voice came out as a garbled collection of guttural noises to his ears.

The last thing he recalled as the beginning of the ritual. After that it had all vanished in a blur of pain and powerful sensations. Quickly he glanced down at his own chest. It was whole and pristine, unmarred by the gaping hole he had seen wrenched in it.

"I'm sorry." The voice came through to him suddenly and quite clearly. With a start he turned and watched as the blurs around them seem to clear and condense becoming a solid image with proper shape and definition. The solidification spread rapidly and before long Kain found himself standing in a small drawing room. There were polished oak tables and thick carpets imported from the east. The walls were hand painted royal red and the shield of his father baring the coast of arms of Willendorf.

At the table was seated a slender woman. She had high cheek bones and long black hair, tied back into a pony tail halfway down between her shoulder blades. She was dressed in a frilly sort of brocade dress outlined with red satin and her eyes were pale with the signs of blindness.

Before her stood a young man perhaps no older then fifteen. He was looking at the women with a defiant expression set rigidly into his face.

The woman looked at him, despite the blindness, and then shook her head and sighed.

"No Kain, no you're not." She said in a flat voice that carried no traces of acceptance or scorn. Instantly Kain understood. He remembered this scene now. This was the moment where he had come to her to face the rebuke of his sister after he had killed his brother to secure dominance as the heir to their father's estates.

He was watching it from a third person view and neither of them seemed aware of his presence. The young boy was himself... and the woman at the table, was Ester the sister who had helped ensure his assassination during his human life.

"No... I'm not." The young boy admitted after a moment of silence. His manner and tone were completely unapologetic but then he softened a little and lowered his gaze.

"I am sorry if it upset you though." He added in a more reasonable voice. "But I did what I had to do. It was me, or him."

Ester smiled faintly at him in response and there was some element of pity there in her smile that made Kain's stomach squirm.

"There can be only one successor to father's title." She said lightly. The boy looked up at her with expectation of acceptance in his face.

"Yes. I have to..." He started but the elder sister cut him off.

"I have to kill, in order to live." She said, turning her blind eyes away from him. "Survival of the fittest."

The younger Kain blinked in confusion.

"Who said that?" He asked a little perplexed.

"A scholarly friend of mine I knew from the University of Stahlberg doing work in biology, the study of wild animals." She said absently and then turned to face him again and now her expression was deadly serious.

"Kain, you do what you have to do." She said and then reached out and grasped him quite firmly on his shoulder pulling him a step closer.

"But I would not have you lose sight of that and kill for the sheer joy of it." She said in a tone like cold iron. The young Kain flinched slightly in her grip but she held him fast so he could not look away from her face.

"Kill when necessary." She said and those three words were more of a command then a rebuke. "Can you promise me that?"

The young man looked frozen on the spot for a moment and then looked down at the floor, his expression troubled. When he looked back up his face was set with a consternated confusion.

"I don't know." He admitted slowly. Ester didn't release her grip on him but held him there with an expectant silent waiting for him to continue.

"I cannot tell what the future may ask me to do." Kain said. "Necessity may require me to kill a lot of people... and I may be required to enjoy it. I cannot make that promise ahead of time." Ester was silent her lips thin and pulled down into a frown. Then she straightened and seemed to smile.

"A wise answer." She said and she pulled her younger brother into an embrace, holding him to her. The young man hesitated and then slowly returned the gesture.

"Try to keep my words in your heart Kain." He said and for an instant, just for an instant, Kain could have sworn that she was looking directly at him rather than the boy.

In that moment Kain felt a . That powerful blow came from directly inside him and it rocked him to his knees with its intensity. Then it came again, stronger this time and he collapsed onto his all fours gasping in surprise. There was no pain, just an unexpected intensity.

Thump after thump echoed through him and in the midst of their internal blows Kain realised what they were. It was his heart beating. The heart cut from him as a human being had been returned to its proper place and he could feel its strength pounding through him. He had been without one for so long that its powerful thumping took him by surprise.

.

"_**Almost literally I kept her words in my heart. For with the return of my original human heart, came with it the realization that I had failed many times to live up to her expectation of me. I had killed more times than I could count for the pleasure of the act."**_

_**.**_

As his body stiffened and muscles tightened to adapt to the new powerful sensation running through him, the once emperor of Nosgoth recalled all the instances of casual violence had had engaged in. The imagination of the vampire can at times be quite graphic and Kain was a very imaginative person, coming up with diverse and unusual methods of sending even the most benign of offenders screaming into the abyss.

He had waded through blood to reach his throne and then butchered thousands of people over the generations of his rule and had thought nothing of it.

.

"_**Vampire or not... Emperor or not... I was accountable for my actions in this regard at least." **_

.

The beating inside him settled into rich thrumming and when that happened it no longer weakened his body but strengthened it instead. He could feel all the strength his fit like attacks had lost him flowing back to him, slowly at first and then in a rushing river.

But it went even further then just restoration. Inconceivable as it was his human heart was actually making him stronger then he had been in the first instance. Had the Heart of darkness been a leash keeping him tethered to a certain length of strength and then not allowing him to surpass it?

That heart had belonged to Janos Audron and its presence inside his body had been maintained through necromantic magic. That had been necessary to revive him as a vampire to begin with but had he simply outgrown it now? With his original intended heart restored in its place was he reaching his full potential now?

Was this the final intent Mortanious and Ester's machinations? Many unanswered questions burned in his mind, overriding Ester's words and advice - kill only when necessary, which swam like a fish through the current of his soul.

.

"_**But it was of only momentary regret. The human, Kain the son of Coorhagen was long since gone. Kain, the Scion of Balance was all that remained now. He killed whenever he chose to consider it necessary. That was enough to satisfy my sense of right and wrong." **_


	47. 46 Raziel Agony

The march of the homunculi was steadily thrumming vibration that sent rocks rolling down the side of the mountain with its intensity. Raziel sank his talons into the cliff-face harder; digging them in as far as they would go. It was all he could do to hang on, buffeted by the wind and the tremors of the earth as he was. Grimly though he set himself and climbed, scaling the mountain towards its top; inch by agonising inch.

The base of the mountain lay perhaps two hundred feet below but it loomed further up for thousands more. Perhaps another fifty feet and he would pass through a thin layer of cloud. From this vantage point however he could already see the legions marching up the gentler slope towards the plateau high aloft.

.

"_**The scene before me was the prelude to a war. My past incarnation was throwing all of his military might at this castle above. There could only be one reason such a desperate move. Kain must lie within." **_

_**.**_

It was hardly a confirmation beyond all doubt of Kain's location of course but it was a good indication of it. This many homunculi would not come out of their garrison for anything less then to wage war on the primary enemy of the Divus.

There was a sudden flap of wings from somewhere high above and turning sharply Raziel saw something flying overhead. It took only a minute to discern what it was. The angelic form of one of the ancient vampires was unmistakable with those large spread black wings. Even from this distance however Raziel could see it wasn't his past incarnation, but was rather another Divus. It was bulkier and carried in one hand a huge black hammer that he could see even from down here.

Then the Divus were not just sending their homunculi to attack on their behalf. They were coming themselves in force.

.

"_**Time was of the essence now. If he were to stand a chance against Raziel-Divus and the armies of city of terracotta abominations, he would need the Reaver restored to his hand." **_

_**.**_

The physical blade in question was poking him between his shoulder blades uncomfortably but he ignored it and continued to scale, climbing upwards with as much speed as was possible on this wind ravaged cliff.

Reaching the top seemed to take forever as some parts of the cliff were slick with ice making it hard to find a good grip but eventually the blue wraith heaved himself up over the edge of a precipice.

Malek's bastion lay atop this plateau, high black stone walls leaving only a thin stretch of ground outside the fortress itself. From the north and east, up the only slightly less steep a slope came the armies of the Divus. They were approaching rapidly now towards the unguarded gates of the castle on the northern side. They would be marching unchallenged into the fort within a few minutes. Circling above were the Divus, three of them in all and one of them was his past incarnation. None of them seemed to have spotted him yet though. Stealth would not be possible for long in such an atmosphere with literally thousands of enemies approach but it might be enough to get him inside and find Kain.

Raziel did not even need to scale the wall of the fortress. Over time it had been worn down by the elements and in places the outer fortifications had crumbled away. On the western side there was a large hole in the wall where rubble had collapsed and been buried in ice and snow.

Almost immediately in the courtyard beyond Raziel ran into a small group of homunculi, an advance party perhaps sent ahead to scout. He fell on them instinctively and quickly so they did not have time to raise their weapons to keep him off them. The wraith blade sang its ghostly song as it sliced through the terracotta soldiers and laid them low; slicing their bodies to pieces.

One of them actually tried to bolt, not to save its life Raziel imagined, but rather to alert its fellows or the Divus themselves of the presence of enemies. Raziel ran after it quickly and easily outpaced it. He slashed across its midsection with the wraith blade and it collapsed, its top half clattered to the ground and the bottom continuing to run for another two steps before it smashed into the side of a broken pillar.

Not waiting time on dawdling Raziel ran between a black stone archway and into the main courtyard before what he suspected as the keep's main doorway. It stood there open and unguarded and the blue wraith bolted for it as fast as he could go. If he could make it there and into the fortress itself he would stand better odds.

Before he was halfway across the courtyard however, a blurring blue and black shape came down directly in front of him with a tremendous speed. Something whistled, the only warning Kain had of the incoming attack.

At the least second he jumped back out of the way as a morning star came crashing down into the ground where he had stood not so much as a moment ago.

The weapon was a spiked ball on the chain, the spikes curly curved and hooked. Holding the weapon was one of the Divus, one of the ancient vampires. He was thin and had slicked back black hair. He wore silver armour across his shins and forearms and a simple white toga. Spreading out from around his right eye was a spidery set of dark markings that covered almost one entire half of his face.

With a negligent tug he pulled the morning star out of the giant hole it had made in the stones and held it effortless despite how much it might have weighed.

Raziel remembered him with a start. This was one of the Divus he had seen talking with his past incarnation back in the impossible city of Fanum-Divus. Raziel-Divus had called him, Asmodeus.

The Divus before him looked at him with little to no evident surprise, only an amused sort of disgust.

"Aren't you an ugly one?" He remarked in an almost effeminate voice.

"I've been asked that before." Raziel replied.

The Divus made to raise the weapon again but suddenly another blur came at him from behind. A streaking reddish mass bounded out of the darkness of the fortress. It slammed into the back of the un-alerted Divus, knocking him to the ground in a tangle of arms, wing and chain.

Pinning him to the ground was a large lupine shape covered in thick reddish fur. Instantly Raziel recognised the feral form of the lycanthrope emissary Ewoden.

With a snarl the werewolf raise his left forelimb prepared to bite and slash down at the Divus he had pinned beneath him. With only a mildly irritated expression Asmodeus flexed his wings and spread them out wide with quick quickness there was the snap of clicking bone. The wings slapped Ewoden directly across his front and sent him flying with the strength of the impact. He flew several feet before he hit the ground, rolling a short distance before scrapping his claws across the stone to stop himself.

Asmodeus was back on his feet in an instant, his large black wings flapping several times before he launched himself back into the air. Raziel tried to follow him with his eyes but in the air the Divus was a fast blur. Flying at such speed Asmodeus was circling the courtyard so quickly the morning star he used as a weapon made a loud whooshing sound as it travelled.

With a loud crack and boom the Divus smashed his weapon into the side of a wall and the impact shattered the stone right down to the ground. The wall almost seemed to explode, falling forward towards them in large jagged pieces.

Raziel rolled out of the way of one and then turned to blast another incoming piece of rubble with a telekinetic bolt that sent it spinning away. Ewoden scrambled up and the large dog like animal form dodged left and right to escape, skipping and almost dancing around the rubble.

Asmodeus paused to hover high above them as if contemplating when next to attack, his morning star ready by his side. Then quite unexpectedly he turned his head to look off towards his left. A large triumphant sneer crossed his face and his eyes were alert with a barley restrained glee. Quickly he took off in the opposite direction, vanishing from side almost immediately.

Raziel didn't have time to wonder at this strange behaviour as barely a moment later homunculi came marching in tightly held rows down the snow slick path from the gate towards the fortress. The army had reached the castle and they were marching in with an unstoppable and mindless determination. Those carrying shields marched in front forming a thick unbroken barrier that moved in front of the advancing terracotta troops. Those with spears marched just behind their weapons levelled through the gaps.

More homunculi were coming in through side archways to join up with the main column. The armies of Fanum-Divus advanced quickly and without pause.

Raziel was on the verge of running. He was a match for a dozen homunculi all by himself but an army of that magnitude would simply overwhelm him by sheer force of numbers. For Ewoden it seemed that was not even a small consideration. With a snarl of hatred the Lycanthrope emissary tore past the blue wraith apparently without even noticing him and ploughed head first directly into the teeth of his ancient enemies.

The shield wall of the homunculi could have taken the broad attack of another army in combat. But against the precise lunge of an enraged werewolf it broke and Ewoden was amongst them. His claws tore through the terracotta skin and slashed deep inside to let the stinking liquid interior poor out.

Perhaps seven homunculi had fallen before the others had had a chance to even raise the weapons in defence.

Raziel paused, his gaze moving back and forth between the battle and the open and still accessible doorway into the fortress interior.

His decision was not hard to make.

Flourishing his arm he called forth the wraith blade again and leapt into the fray at Ewoden's side, spinning around in a fast arch. He cut down two that were trying to stab the lycanthrope emissary from behind, carving them from their right shoulders to their waists. Ewoden responded by leaping over the blue wraith and landing on one of the terracotta warriors approaching from behind him with an axe.

The army of homunculi converged on them both and attacked in waves and Raziel had to use every ounce of supernatural agility in his ghoulish body to evade the multitude.

Rather quickly the two of them found themselves back to back, hacking and slashing at any homunculus that came nearby. Terracotta warriors fell by the dozens but there were always fifty more to take their place.

Raziel was so distracted in his attempt to ward off the enemies in front of him that he didn't notice the fizzle and crack of energy until it was too late. An officer homunculus discharged a blast of energy directly at him and it took him full in the side with a deafening explosion. The blast threw him across the courtyard to crash into a pile of rubble and disappear beneath the debris.

Ewoden half turned to watch him go and in that moment all of the homunculus backed off suddenly as one, moving away from the Lycanthrope.

It was then that Raziel-Divus slammed down out of the air, flying fast and quick and smashing himself straight into the werewolf. The impact knocked all the strength out of Ewoden and he collapsed like a rag doll, falling down his back and reverting with an exclamation of agony back into his human form.

Flapping his wings casting snowflakes everywhere, Raziel-Divus landed atop the emissary and pinned him to the ground with one foot. In his right hand he held a silver sword that sparked with ominous red lightning.

"Filthy, disgusting animal!" The king of Fanum-divus stated in a snarl, his face twisted wand filled with contempt. "Ambraxas erred when he created your kind!"

Ewoden looked up at him and snarled back grasping the talons on the Divus' feet in both hands, struggling vainly to push him off.

"He didn't create us!" The emissary hissed and his forearms began to revert back to their feral state in his fury. "He mutilated us! Changed us from what we were to what we are! First Romulus, then Remes followed by the rest of us!" His eyes seemed to glow yellow as he changed back, face morphing and pushing out into a lupine muzzle.

"Apparently with your full consent and sanguine blessing!" The last words came out in a deepened and thickened voice and spat with implacable hatred.

Without changing expression Raziel-Divus drew his blade back preparing to stab the emissary through the chest with it.

Raziel acted a fraction of a second after the thought to do so registered in his mind. He exploded out of the rubble, running across the courtyard and throwing his hand forward. His palm jabbed out his past incarnation and from it erupted a concentrate burst of telekinetic force.

So concentrated on his intended victim, the king of Fanum-Divus failed to notice it until it smacked into his head. Toppled off balance he staggered back clutching at his face. His crown fell from his head, clinked on the ground and rolled off to one side.

Ewoden rolled free and came up to his feet, the rest of his body morphing back into the protection of his more versatile lupine form. He barred his fangs and raises his claws but he was still unsteady on his feet.

Snapping his head up to look, Raziel-Divus' expression of hatred and rage evaporated in an instant as he once more faced his counterpart. The colour drained from his face and his golden eyes bulged.

"You! Here?" He almost gargled.

Raziel stopped a few feet away from his past self and with one flick of his arm he summoned the wraith blade. The ghostly weapons screamed its ethereal hunger.

"Have you learned fear yet?" The blue wraith asked tauntingly.

Raziel-Divus' eyes flicked to the glowing weapon and then up to his adversaries face and then they widened in additional shock.

"The Reaver!" He gasped and Raziel realised that he was looking past him to the physical sword itself strapped across his back, its hilt plainly visible over his shoulder. "How did you get that!" The king of Fanum-Divus demanded, some of his anger returned in a snarl.

Raziel did not answer but simply adjusted his stance to keep himself between his former incarnation and the still unsteady Ewoden.

Raziel-Divus hissed like an affronted cat and then clamped his teeth tightly together.

"No matter!" He said from between them and his hand tightened on the hilt of his sparking blade. "Your hand is not the one that releases its full power" He raised his weapon and levelled it at his future self. "It is useless against me wielded by anyone else but Kain!"

Raziel regarded his opponent with a deepened sense of self disgust and scorn. Before him was the antithesis of the path of self improvement and development he had now set himself upon and it rankled intensely.

"It truly sickens me to see how low a level my soul started from." He said in a low flat tone, eyes narrowing. "Even the Sarafan inquisitor, murderer of Janos, had more dignity than you."

The remark seemed to enflame the king of Fanum-Divus afresh and his wings fluttered in his fury. He brought up his left arm and the strange shield attached to it, an odd mixture of clockwork and the arcane, sprang into life casting its protective barrier between the two Raziel's.

"This time you will not escape from me!" Raziel-Divus said with a nervous twitch to his left cheek.

Raziel barked a derisive laugh and took a threatening step forward, adopting a unique fighting stance based on his own wiry and emasculated frame.

"Escaping is for weak minded cowards like yourself." He said, holding up the wraith blade challengingly. "I'm here to see to it that Kain destroys you!"


	48. 47 Kain Challenger

The thump in his chest woke Kain with a start and he strained with a gasp, eyes snapping open and staring up at the vaulted ceiling high above. His vision swam momentarily and he blinked to clear his eyes. Everything seemed disconnected and vague, sounds muted slightly and his skin numb.

Then came another thump, and another and then another and the vampire lay there feeling it pulse inside his very being. Each thump from within restored more and more clarity to his senses and he became painful aware of everything around him.

Slowly he raised his hand and laid it over the left hand side of his chest. There was no wound there anymore; it was completely healed and whole. There he felt that sensation, that steady strength renewing thump of a beating organ.

.

"_**Awakening from my enforced slumber the sensation of the steady beating heart in my chest was a feeling that left me squirming uncomfortably. I had grown use to its absence and with its return; my body had to readjust once more."**_

.

Every ounce of weakness was gone, all trace of it evaporated and replaced with his tried and tested reserves of strength. But even more he could feel new reserves course through his veins now to join with his own stockpile. His body felt as light as a feather and as solid as a rock.

Without any effort at all he hoisted himself up into a sitting position and blinked several times to clear his vision completely. His eyes focused on the sight on the far side of the carved ritual symbol. Lying in a crumbled heap was Ezekiel. The old man was dead, there was no doubt of that. His chest was still wrenched open liken a butchered hog and he lay unmoving in a thick puddle of black blood.

Kain stared at the corpse for a long time with a peculiar tugging regret deep inside him. The old man had been the last of his sister's bloodline and the very last member of his human family. The proud nobility of Coorhagen had ended with a selfless old man who had done is duty even to the death.

"Kain?" The vampire turned to see standing over him was a distinctly feminine set of Sarafan armour, glowing from within faintly. It took him a moment to reconnect his short term memory with his present mind.

"Umah?" He asked and then shook his head as he reconnected completely with the present situation. Quickly he got back up to his feet. Neither Ewoden or strangely Ashar was anywhere to be seen. He was about to speak but stopped as Umah was staring with some intensity at his chest rather than his face.

"Your heart?" She asked with only a moment's hesitation. Kain managed an almost boyish grin and patted his chest again.

"Where it should be." He stated and then paused, only now becoming aware of the steady rumble of noise from far above, it was an ominous sound like a distant roll of thunder only much closer. Then he noticed a pile of armour lying off to one side. It hadn't caught his attention at first because of the horde of armour piled up in the corners from the chamber but when he looked he saw quite clearly that the collapsed pile of crumbled metal had been that very same set which Ashar had used as his vessel. It lay there unmoving without the barest hint of an inner spiritual glow.

Kain grew alarmed. He could not afford to lose the Hylden king for Ashar had the knowledge passed down to him by Ba'al of the strategy the two of them intended to implement, a strategy that might prove invaluable in the war against the false god and the Divus.

"What happened?" He asked looking at Umah sharply. She half turned to look back at the collapsed armour herself, apprehension clear in her body language. Kain was finding he could detect her feelings through watching her stance since she lacked a face to make actual expressions. Right now he sensed she was worried and restless, a stance he had seen her use before when in the Cabal's sanctuary hideout.

"Ashar's energies were expended during the ritual." She said and there was fear in her voice. "He is severely weakened, Kain. He will require a lot of time to reconstitute himself." The vampire however was shrewd enough to detect that her concern was not entirely for her benefactor. She was after all in the same situation the Hylden king was since her body was not her own but an unnaturally animated puppet. If this could happen to Ashar it could certainly happen to her.

"But there are more important matters afoot now!" She said and almost at the exact same time the rumbling from high above grew even louder. Several pieces of discarded armour from the horde jumped and clattered in response to the accompanying vibration.

Kain looked up at the ceiling above frowning.

"What is going on?" He demanded.

"The Bastion above us is being attacked by an army!" He almost didn't register her words for a moment. The vampire blinked and looked at her sharply, incredulity written large in his face.

"An army!" He burst out in surprise. "Who's army?"

Umah glanced off towards the open doorway of the forging chamber.

"Your lycanthrope friend called him Raziel-Divus." She replied. Kain stiffened slightly at the sound of the name and was silent for a long moment, his lips pressed tightly together. Then, slowly at first, a wide grin began to break across his face and his eyes narrowed into savage amusement.

"The king of Fanum-Divus has finally found me then as he?" He asked rhetorically. His voice carried the hint of a dreadful and eager pleasure, a chance to be vindicated. Revenge was not a pleasant desire even by vampire standards and often only motivated the young and foolish. Kain would be the first to admit that revenge had been one of his primary motivation during his youth and that by now he had outgrown it, but the king of Fanum-Divus had earned a return to that kind of bloody and visceral retribution.

"So much the better." He said with a malicious grin showing off his fangs. He started towards the door but when Umah did not follow he stopped and looked back at her. She was standing beside Ashar's collapsed form almost resolutely.

"Kain, Ashar cannot defend himself in this state." She said and her voice was solemn. "I owe him too much allow his vessel to be destroyed."

Kain could see from her body language she meant what she said. Truth be told he was happy she felt that way. After so long he had found her again and had gone further in earning her forgiveness then he had ever thought possible. He was not prepared to risk her in the melee so soon.

"Then protect him if the fight is brought down here." He told her in a tone that he intended to solidify her resolve. He didn't want her second guessing herself later and come up to assist where she might be in true danger. "He has the instructions from Ba'al. I would prefer not to lose that insight."

Resolutely he turned to face the chambers entryway.

"I will keep the general of this army occupied." There was no further need for conversation. She said nothing to him as he left and he did not venture to say anything either. They had said enough to each other already and if further words were really necessary then they would keep until another less strenuous time.

The lack of any coherent strategy to face the greatest enemy general he had ever known did not concern Kain as perhaps it should have. During their last direct confrontation Raziel-Divus had not only defeated him but left him for dead. The only thing that had saved Kain had been his enemies tactical error in assuming he could leave vampire floating in the ether.

Perhaps Ewoden had gone on ahead to delay the arrival of the armies of the Divus. It was a noble gesture and Kain did not mean to see it mean nothing in the end. This time Kain was adamant there would be no escape for either himself or his enemy. One of them was not leaving this mountaintop alive.

With his heart restored to its proper place all the energy he had lost returned in force and he found himself moving with restored speed, only now aware of how slow he had been when afflicted. In mid stride he changed form, slipping his body down into the sleek lupine shape he often used for clearing large distances in a hurry.

He rejoiced in the return of his vitality, revelling in its speed and near endless stamina. This was a kingly gift indeed from his sister and her bloodline and he would cherish it most dearly.

Perhaps some of the invading forces had managed to slip around the vanguard Ewoden had tried to provide, for when Kain erupted out of the entrance of the secret tunnels and into Malek's throne room he came almost directly into an advance party of armed homunculi.

He was in their midst in a startled moment and he reacted with the instinctive violence common to nearly all vampires and especially the trained warrior.

In lupine form he bounded into the air and came down on the officer leading them, pinning him to the ground so hard and fast that his terracotta foe shattered into pieces on impact. Rebounding of the shattered enemy Kain morphed back into his normal form in mid air. Twisting around quickly, he kicked one of the homunculi in the chest. To his surprise the talons of his feet shredded through the terracotta which had previously taken some force to puncture.

In that moment he realized what this meant. His thought that his strength had been augmented by the return of his heart had been confirmed. After a moment of stunned incredulity, a wide evil grin parted his lips. Laughing with glee he tore into the now outclassed homunculi with a passion, his talons raking through terracotta with ease.

One of them he punched straight through the head as if it were made of paper. A second he tore an arm off of with his bare hands, ripping the limb clear before proceeding to bludgeon another two into pieces with it.

A third attacked him from behind with a spear. He grabbed the shaft as it stabbed past him and he swung it back across the side of the nearby wall with enough force to break the puppet holding it into wet pieces.

Another two he set into slamming them up into the side of Malek's throne the frozen corpse toppled forward out of its seat and clattered to the floor loudly as Kain ripped his enemies apart with his bare hands.

Unsatisfied with a mere physical chastisement, Kain turned his magical energies on the remaining force baring his way. He sent bolts of burning energy at them blasting holes through them with ease, shafts of lightning that reduced a homunculus to dust and waves of telekinetic force that hurled his enemies out of his way.

So strong was his body now that he found himself disappointed he could not test it further when he ran out of homunculi. The swift skirmish could not even be a called a warm up. With an almost boyish grin on his way he made for the corridor that would lead him outside, quite confident that the enemy general commanding these puppets would be a more substantial method of testing himself.

Kain purposely did not take the direct route out into the Bastion's courtyard. Instead he made for a set of stairs that he remembered would lead him out to the top of a rotten watchtower. Through the stone arrow slits he could see glimpses of the chaos outside.

Quickening his pace he made towards the top of the tower. Bursting out onto the battlements he came to look out at the melee. An endless army of homunculi was marching in through the Bastion's gates, like the snow itself was coming to life and spawning the terracotta troops. The sky above was sparking with unnatural red lightning, thick black clouds roiling angry emitting growls of like a hate filled snarl.

It was as if the heavens themselves had ripped themselves apart to spill out their fury and wrath onto the earth.

From across the castle came the sound of thunderous detonates that accompanied flashes of surging multicoloured rights. The ground trembled slightly underfoot with each flash.

.

"_**And so this was the scene for the final confrontation with Raziel-Divus was it? How epically fitting."**_

.

Kain found himself smiling at the picture. No other battlefield was more appropriate, more worthy to service as the ending place between the rivalry between the scribe of heaven and himself as this.

With a bound he leapt from the tower to the stone below, landing quite purposefully in the midst of a thick platoon of homunculi. The terracotta soldiers turned sharply to face him instantly, weapons and shields at the ready. Kain kept his eyes on the battle before him almost ignoring the enemies that were no less then dust to him, arms held at the ready out wide with talons flexed.

.

"_**Now, with my heart restored and my soul aflame, it was time to end the so called Scribe of heaven once and for all."**_

.


	49. 48 Raziel Reunited

Swinging his blazing red sword down with its point to the ground, the king of Fanum-Divus released a powerful shockwave that raced along the group obliterating any hapless homunculus that got in its part. The flagstones of the courtyard buckled and cracked in its wake and Raziel had one spilt second in which to determine a course of action and act.

He did the only thing he could do to dodge the blast. He jumped. The action was almost completely instinctive as he leapt at the wall behind him, sinking his talons into the stone. He had gotten out of the direct path of the onslaught and it slammed into the base of the wall a couple of feet below. It was only a momentary respite, for the wall began to crack and crumble with a near destroyed foundation. With a thunderous roar it began to topple forward.

Propelling himself away from it with a kick Raziel spun into mid air but there he was merely a target for the officer homunculi who lurked at the edge of the fight hurling bolts of condensed energy at him. He dodged two of them, spinning around in the air but one caught him across the arm as he tried to right himself.

The blast dragged him down back to the stones of the courtyard again. The blue wraith rolled for some distance, scrapping his talons across the stones to slow himself down with fragments of stone flying. He felt his inner energies dim and flicker as a result of the impact. Tearing himself back to his feet Raziel quickly turned to face the real threat.

Raziel-Divus was coming down at him again, flapping his large black feathered wings to keep himself aloft.

Here in this time and place there was not one, nor two but three incarnations of himself. The blue wraith faced his first form and across his back was the material Soul Reaver with his soul trapped inside. Raziel had deliberately forced himself not to think about the complex set of temporal events but the close proximity of three of his souls instead of two was causing some distracting effects.

As it had in the fight to reclaim the sword from Elzevir, the temporal distortion made the world warp and twist around him; bending in the paradox. The horizons were distant and close all at once and his depth perception was badly unreliable. In order to act and judge the movements of his enemies and allies in this all important battle Raziel was having to rely on the position relative of his own body. There was almost a certain large amount of luck involved as well.

With a thunderous expression of hated and rage upon his face he swept his sword down again unleashing another shockwave. This time Raziel had time to act for a far more favourable position. He ran forward, ducking under the edge of the shockwave. There was a split second where the king of Fanum-Divus was vulnerable after delivering that attack, his sword outstretched and no attention given to his own defence.

Raziel ran at him as fast as possible, knowing that the window of opportunity was slight. When he got far enough he cupped his hands together and focused as hard as he could. In response to his mental command between his palms formed a swirling ball of condensed telekinetic force. He didn't have time to ensure its cohesion for long distance projection. Unleashing it at his past self Raziel threw the ball. It hurtled, loosing cohesion as it flew before impacting the face of his enemy. It wasn't enough to cause any significant damage but the blast was sufficient to cause the king of Fanum-Divus immense irritation. With a snarl of frustrated rage, he held his free hand up to his face covering his eyes and dazed from the hit.

Raziel was still too far away from his enemy to capitalise on this momentary distraction but his partner in this battle was not.

In lupine form Ewoden leapt out from the side of the fortress wall, his arms spread wide and mouth agape. Before Raziel-Divus could react the werewolf was on him, clasping with claws and fangs biting deep into his back and wing muscles.

Screaming out in rage and pain, the king of Fanum-Divus struggled to keep himself aloft with the excess weight. The armour of the king however kept the lycanthrope emissary from inflicting deadly injury and after a moment to recover his wits he retaliated.

For a moment Raziel-Divus curled up into a foetal position with his arms curled around his knees. Then he spread them wide with a scream of outrage, his sword stabbing the sky. Out in every direction crashed an intense new shockwave. Moving out like a rapidly expanding bubble the pulse of pure force dug into the ground and sent flagstones flying in all directions. With a somewhat startled expression on his feral face Ewoden was sent hurtling up into the air, disappearing over the edge of the Bastion's main fortress.

Raziel had the good sense to hug the ground and bunch himself up. Anchored down and fortified he weathered the impact of the shockwave and let it wash over him, although he was struck across the head by a flying stone.

The strike left him dazed and his vision swam. He blinked to try and clear it but that moment of inattentiveness left him open. Raziel-Divus flew at him with his wings spread wide. His sword was drawn back trailing bolt of crackling red lightning in the air as it moved.

Raziel's counterstroke was instantaneous and instinctive, so fast he wasn't even aware he was moving. He flourished his right arm, calling forth the wraith blade. It screamed into existence just in time to parry the blow and then defend his head from an overhead swipe.

Raziel-Divus' blows were driven by anger and intense rage but not enough to make him loose control of himself. Every blow was precisely aimed at a weakness in the blue wraiths defence and Raziel knew he was in trouble. A berserker with an intelligent mind back up the fury was not an opponent one took head on.

Staying on the defensive was not an option. Raziel took an opportunity present and lunged, aiming at his past self with his ghostly sword. The king of the Divus side stepped, narrowly avoiding the ethereal blade and swung his sword down threatening to cut the blue wraith's arm off.

To save his limb Raziel dragged his leg sharply across from the right, kicking the king's foundations out from under him. Raziel-Divus stumbled one and his blow missed, falling short of its mark by a foot.

Raziel took the opportunity to send a rolling slash directly at his enemy, but his past incarnation matched him for speed and blocked him with his left arm. The strange shield attached to his bracer lanced out its triangle of barbs that formed its perimeter. Once these emerged the shields energies burst into life forming a protective ethereal aegis that warded off Raziel's ghostly weapon.

The two connected together, ghost weapon clashing against a ghostly defence. Briefly there was a moment when the two unearthly forces clashed where they almost seemed to dance in harmony, as if the two were lost siblings embraced. Then the will of their masters drove them at one another and they erupted in sparks of conflict.

Raziel tried to strike in quick enough to score a hit but his past incarnation was just as fast, using his shield to defend himself while lashing out at him from behind it.

Eventually though the blue wraith as forced to give way, dodging back out of reach of that sparking sword of red lightning.

He danced back out of range, making for the dubious safety of the side of the fortress building. Homunculi tried to bar his way with heavy shields. The Blue wraith simply slide underneath them and rolled back up to his feet still running.

Raziel-Divus took to his wings and tore through the obstacle, not having the presence of mind to simply order his own minions out of the way.

Briefly Raziel wondered why those other two Divus had not come to aid their master in battle. That first one with the morning star weapon, Asmodeus had engaged at first but when he had perceived his kings coming he had quit the field in a hurry. And that third one had never seen showed up at all.

Suddenly Raziel ran into a more substantial obstacle, a curved shield wall formed by homunculi who had the sense to guard their feet. Raziel skidded to a sudden stop, finding himself cut off and unable to run any further. He was trapped in a smaller courtyard with snow piled up all around him, spikes jutting out from the walls stained black with old blood.

He sharply turned around to face the oncoming form of the fuming king of the Divus. His past incarnation was flying at him hard down the way he had come eyes ablaze with fanatic zeal.

"Raziel!" A voice barked from above and the king of Fanum-Divus flapped to a sudden stop about a few feet away.

Both Raziel's froze in that moment, eyes widening simultaneously and they glanced up sharply to where that shout had come from.

A figure, tall and muscular, dropped down from the stones above to land forming a barrier between the king of Fanum-Divus and his future incarnation.

_**.**_

"_**And so here he was yet again, Kain the disruptor. The pebble in the pond that destroyed all it touched. There was no one I was pleased more to see." **_

.

"Kain?" Raziel-Divus almost gargled; his face momentarily stunned his sword held loosely at his side as if he were suddenly not aware he was holding it. Kain was not looking at him; rather the vampires gaze was solely for the blue wraith.

Then Raziel realised that Kain was not looking at him directly, but rather was staring directly at the hilt of the Reaver which was still strapped across his back.

There was really not time for formal ceremony but Raziel felt the intense need for a theatrical display none the less. He easily tore the makeshift rope he had used to carry the weapon and swung it forward, holding it out with the blade across his palms.

As he held the sword the rippling distortion seemed to grow even larger, more violent and pronounced. Something was on the verge of happening, some very simple but at the same time profound enough to alter the course of history.

"No! You cannot!" Raziel-Divus snarled and lunged, sword drawn back ready to strike.

Kain however was quicker, reaching out with his right hand to grasp the hilt of his destined sword.

The moment he took the blade, history itself gave off an alarmed screech. Everything around them shuddered violently and something profound seemed to lurch to one side, like a diverted river taking up a new course.

Raziel recognised the sound. History was protesting at this event. Had Kain been destined never to wield the sword again and now that he did, was the course of their futures altering? Had this been the contingency plan laid down by their enemies?

Raziel did not have time to ponder for as Kain took the sword, it erupted into white flame; the cleansing power of spirit snaking down its length.

That most powerful of the elemental energies had not been in the sword itself but rather in Kain, for only when the Soul Reaver was wielded by the Scion of Balance did its true power come forth.

.

"_**The Soul Reaver was Kain's once more, his hand rightfully clasping the hilt. With the sword raised high the blade burst into spiritual fire." **_

_**.**_

Kain looked at his sword for a moment, and then sprung all in one motion. He set into the homunculi standing around them and his swings tore through the minions of the Divus as if they were made of parchment. Their shields availed them not and methodically he hacked them to pieces, the blade fire scorching whatever remained into ash.

Raziel-Divus watched from the edge of the courtyard his lips pulled back in a snarl of hate.

"You were supposed to die." He spat." You were both supposed to die!"

Kain slung his blade across one shoulder and cast a whimsical look at his partner.

"I don't practically feel like dying, what about you?" He asked in conversational tone. Raziel shrugged.

"It's not high on my list of priorities." The blue wraith replied. "I think I've died enough for one existence."

Kain nodded sagely and turned to face their enemy.

"You see how it is friend." He said. "We'd love to oblige you only we have other commitments, you understand how that goes."

Raziel-Divus was less than impressed, his red lightning sword glowing brighter as if in response to his anger.

"You had the Reaver the last time I fought you. This changes nothing." He said flatly. Kain held out one hand and shook a talon.

"If I may disagree, the situation is entirely different." He said and then gestured out at the blue wraith. "Last time, I was alone."

It would have been utterly inconceivable for Raziel to stand by Kain's side, fighting in his defence against such enemies before. Had the Divus approached Raziel when he had first been revived in this ragged form he would perhaps eagerly aided them in crushing Kain and any who dared stand with him.

Now was the situation reversed and he felt more conviction and determination in this role as he had in any role previously. Now he was more than a servant, beyond an avenger or even a pseudo saviour. Now he was an ally of the scion of Balance and it felt right.

"Perhaps you might be more than a match for either of us... separately." Kain carried on and there was a not a steel edge in his voice; a ringing defiant challenge. "Yet I cannot help but wonder how you would fare against the two of us together?"

There was a sudden loud thump as Raziel-Divus turned to look sharply back over his shoulder. Blocking his way out of this smaller courtyard as Ewoden, his lower arms and legs covered in fur and sprouting claws as his animalistic form reasserted itself. The emissary had survived his fall although he did look bruised about the left hand side. Whatever had broken his fall had not evidentially been all that soft.

"Make that three." He said with an ominous growl, his much expanding out into a muzzle full of sharp teeth. Bits of homunculi terracotta fell from the edges of his arched claws.

The King of Fanum-Divus surveyed them all, one by one noticing the weapons of blade, wraith and fangs turned against him. His expression deepened gradually into a scowl of fanatic zeal.

Later when Raziel looked back at this battle he often wondered if the mad king had had the strength of mind of his later incarnations to see it was hopeless it he might have averted or postponed his fate.

"All enemies of heaven fall by my hand!" He spat into the air, bringing his sword up high above his air. The blade crackled with his anger and the sky overhead grew dark, the clouds rolling with the blackest shadows cast amongst them.

Kain brought the Reaver out in front of himself, his hands steady and confident on the grip of the sword he always knew once more. Beside him Raziel flourished his right hand and called out his own ethereal sword.

"You will not prevail, heathen!" Their enemy said between clenched teeth, the red lightning gleaming off his armour.

Kain set himself, feet parted and Raziel recognised the body language of a warrior strained for a spring.

"Perhaps not." The vampire admitted, muscular bunching. "But you will not be the one to stop me!"

Kain was across the distance between him and their enemy in a flash, the physical Reaver arching up towards the king's midsection. The scribe of heaven blocked the strike with the shield, blue sparks flying.

Raziel darted forward to take up the offensive as well at the same time Ewoden lunged from behind. The two of them came at their enemy together.

Raziel-Divus twisted, jumping high into mid air. He slammed his foot into Ewoden's face forcing the lycanthrope emissary to back off. The other foot connected with Raziel's chest but the wraith had a far more supple body and was able to bend around it, slipping off to one side so that the hit did not do as much damage as intended.

He grasped his part incarnation by the front of his armour and tried to pull him in close to deliver a thrust with the wraith blade, but the Divus batted his hand aside and slammed his own blade down into the ground directly before him.

The resulting shockwave hit Raziel directly in his unprotected face and sent him flying, tumbling wildly through mid air until he crashed into the side of a black stone wall.

Kain dodged the blast in mist form and darted in striking across Raziel-Divus' temporarily exposed chest with the Reaver. The blade connected sharply with the armour and there was a blinding white fast.

The armour was not regular steel of course, perhaps infused with some measure of power of its own. In protected its wearer from being obliterated on the spot but when the light died away, there was a large carved vent opened wide in the breastplate.

Startled by the power of that strike Raziel-Divus flapped his wings to gain some breathing room. Ewoden would not let him, scrambling out of the shadows and leaping up at their enemy. His target focused itself directly at that gash in the armour, claws biting deep.

Blood spurted out staining the already red fur.

The king of Fanum-Divus screamed in pain and kicked out, knocking the werewolf away but his wounds dripped deeply with blood coating his armour. He held a hand to his jury trying to stem the flow but it kept coming. Ewoden's claws had sunk deep, but not quiet deep enough for the injury to be fatal.

Kain tried to capitalize on that distracting injury and rushed in, the Reaver drawn back in both hands in a stabbing motion. The Divus king however was not so dazed that he was going to simply stand there and let himself get run through. His left arm came down and the mystical shield blocked the Reaver's blow once more, the two energies clashing.

The shield while able to take a direct blow from the Reaver could not withstand that pressure for extended periods of time, its flickering barrier of energy waning while the Soul Reaver's grew stronger.

To save himself from the blow, the Divus king swung out to one side and let Kain slam his blade into the nerveless feathers of his wing. Pinned thus the vampire was left wide open and slamming his own sword down Raziel-Divus unleashed a shockwave at him.

Kain stood there for a moment withstanding the onslaught before he was sent cascading away with his white hair streaming.

As Raziel-Divus took a step back, his future self struck. The blue wraith's attack was not aimed at the Divus king himself but rather at that shield which was impeding their efforts.

Raziel latched onto the king's arm with both hands, his talons digging into his bracer and gripping it hard. Divus turned to look at him sharply and tugged back trying to force his attacker off of him.

The two conflicting Raziel's struggled back and forth, either able to raise their blades against one another. The flickering energies of the shield sparked angrily between them.

Then the blue wraith's talons caught under some catch and with a metallic hiss the device itself came free from the Divus King's arm, flying up into mid air its energies still flickering.

"No!" The Scribe of heaven cried hoarsely. He tried to reach up to catch it but Raziel was already there, reaching out not just with his hand but with his mind was well. Caught in his telekinetic grip the device hovered there briefly before flying to its new owner.

Raziel held out his own left arm and the shield attached itself to the clothe wraps, quite secure in place.

.

"_**Freed from the arm of his previous owner, the shield accepted the change in ownership without question. I felt it connect to my very essence, becoming just as much a part of my body as my hands and feet."**_

_**.**_

Perhaps it was tailor made to fit the soul that wore it and attached to him it merged such as well as it did with the king of the Divus. Raziel felt certain that this shield would follow him back and forth between the spectral and material realms. It felt strange, like being reunited with an old friend he had never known he had.

His shield...

"You ... you thief!" The king of the Divus snarled, holding his now unadorned hand to his bleeding chest.

"It belongs to me just as much as it does you." Raziel replied flatly and with great contempt, flexing the arm. "And I think I can put it to far better use then you ever could."


	50. 49 Kain Fall of Divus

In the end, after he lost his shield the battle with the king of Fanum Divus was almost too easy.

He swung at Raziel with his red lightning blade but armed with the shield now Raziel was able to fend off the strike and stuck back with his own ghost Reaver. The strike caught their enemy across the chest and tore away the remainder of the breast plate away. It clattered to the ground in useless chunks and pieces.

The king of the Divus tried to defend himself but Ewoden struck from behind, clawing savagely and fast at their enemy, he clawed deep wounds down across his arms raking away the shattered remains of the bracers and pauldrons.

Perhaps their advantage of numbers helped but Raziel-Divus conviction seemed to die as the fight wore on, anger and rage giving way to fear and panic.

Kain pressed in on that, not giving him a second to recover his composure. He quickly came to Ewoden's defence as Raziel-Divus swung his blade around at him, parrying the thrust with the Reaver.

Once again armed with the Reaver the scion of balance felt like there was literally nothing he could not do. He flourished it almost overly theatrically in the face of his enemy, making sure that the blazing Reaver was the only thing in the Divus' line of sight.

The strategy paid off. So terrified was their enemy that when Raziel struck him from the left hand side, Kain was able to get in close. He didn't even need the blade. He was not going to kill the king of the Divus. History had another fate in mind for him.

After he had quickly sheathed the blade across his back, Kain almost calmly reached out and took hold of their enemies' wings. Gripping quite firmly he laid one foot against is back and forced him to the ground.

"Kain!" Raziel screamed at him in horror. The vampire did not listen. He pulled back, heaving as far and as hard as he could.

"No... NO...!" The king beneath him gasped in a strangled sob when he realised what was happening. Kain kept on pulling, his muscles tightening. Methodically and with cruel deliberate slowness he tore Raziel-Divus wings off.

The air was suddenly full of blood and black feathers muscles thick with ropey tendons and veins flopped out onto the ground with a wet slop.

The scream that came from the Divus' mouth was a wail of such utter pain that it shook the very mountain beneath them. He stumbled forward thrown completely off balance by the loss of his wings, trailing blood from the giant gaping wounds on his back.

He collapsed forward onto his knees, now unquestioningly defeated. His armour battered and gone, his sword fell from his trembling hand its red lightning sparking away leaving it black and lifeless.

All around them the homunculi which had been infesting the ruins collapsed, breaking down into a stream of golden dust that mixed with the white snow like brown sugar. Kain had suspected that it had been the king of the Divus' own energies that kept them anchored here, perhaps even animating them to begin with.

Struggling to try and rise he looked up at them all gathering, their weapons of choice at the ready. Fear was written into almost every wrinkle on his face. He was terrified, not so much of them, but of what they represented.

"Destiny!" He garbled through bloodied lips. "Destiny is upon me!"

He turned from them, reaching out imploringly into thin air; his gaze carrying beyond the immediate surroundings.

"Metatron!" He cried out in desperation. "Take me away from here!"

There was no reply, only silence answered his plea for assistance.

"Metatron!" He demanded again, more shrilly this time, blood running down his back to form a thick puddle on the ground.

Again he waited, his desperation and fright growing by the second without a reply. Then one came, but it was not the voice of his dutiful and loyal protector. It spoke directly into his mind and its tone was amused.

"I'm afraid your loyal bodyguard can't help you right now." It said and it chuckled evil. The king of Fanum Divus recognised the voice. His senses honed in on the speaker and he finally saw why his bodyguard had not come.

Metatron was lying face down in the snow unmoving. There was a horrible wound in his back, as if his rib cage had been caved in from behind. Standing over the corpse was another of their blue skinned winged kind, holding the silver morning star which had claimed Metatrons' life.

As if sensing he was being watched, the murderer grinned at him with malicious glee.

"Asmodeus!"Raziel-Divus spluttered through his own pain, his eyes wide. "What is the meaning of this?"

Asmodeus-Divus hooked his weapon back on his belt quite causally.

"The meaning?" He repeated with a raised eyebrow head cocked to one side. "You mean you haven't grasped it yet?" He shook his head in disappointment and open disgust. "I'm terribly disappointed in you, old boy."

A dawning horror began to creep, slowly, into the king's mind. Dulled as he was by his fear and pain it took him longer to understand then he usually would and the expression on his face, a slowly morphing from fear to true horror reflected that.

"You just figured it out yourself haven't you?" Asmodeus asked, sneering at him. "This is the point where your rule as the Scribe of Heaven and the King of Fanum-Divus comes to an end. Someone else will be taking that role from now on."

Raziel-Divus slowly began to tremble, blood running from his mouth.

"You... you betrayed me..." He almost gargled. Asmodeus shook a talon at him insultingly.

"You can only betray someone if you were loyal to them to start with." He contradicted and laid a hand over his chest. "I serve only the greater good of our cause."

Asmodeus smirk of triumph seemed to part the curtains of Raziel-Divus' understanding. Everything had been made clear to him in that one stark moment of horrifying clarity.

"You did it!" He spat "You saved Kain from entrapment between the folds of time!"

Asmodeus kept his grin, letting it widen to show off his teeth.

"He was a useful enough distraction to keep you so occupied you never would see the carpet being pulled out from under your feet." He said. "Really, it's almost pathetic how easily it went. I had expected a few bumps along the way but you... you walked down that path with only the slightest prodding. You twisted and struggled and in the end it was easy."

He paused for a moment, reaching down to unceremoniously heave the body of the dead guardian up over one shoulder.

"You know what I think?" He said rhetorically, holding Metatron's body like a sack of grain. "I think that secretly, somewhere deep down in that grubby little soul of yours, you actually wanted this. You wanted to be taken from your comfortable thrown and dipped into the streams of destiny, because you actually want to turn away from this path. You're not as zealous as you think you are. You know that. Your future self is all the proof you need. You warded against it, struggled and fought and in the end it would all come to nothing. And you wanted to let go of the piety and be free. Well sire... enjoy your freedom."

With that accomplished he turned his back on the king and gestured negligently with his free hand. At his commanded, a doorway opened in mid air before him; a gate back to the realm beyond time and space, the gap between everything and nothing where the angelic city dwelled.

"You will be missed though, I promise you." He said looking back over his shoulder eyes alight with sardonic amusement. "But do not fret; I'll take good care of your throne." Waving in farewell with one hand he stepped towards the doorway.

"Ta-Ta Raziel-Divus. Do try to face your destiny now with some dignity, won't you?" Then he vanished and all trace of both he and Metatron were gone.

Raziel-Divus was catapulted violently back to his own location and before him was the finality he had dreaded so long. Embodied in Kain's very flesh, destiny was reaching down to grasp him and when it took hold of him its grip was iron clad.

.

"_**Grasping my enemy between my hands, I did not kill him for I knew that was not his fate here. But rather I flooded into all of his being the spiritual energies I had received in the Forge beneath the ancient citadel. Like the Seer, I purified him and lifted the veil from his sight."**_

.

Kain concentrated hard, remembering how it felt when he had lifted the Seer's veil as part of his condition for providing him the settings had had once needed for the Chloroplast device. That connection, a bridge between souls... not a bridge.. an aqueduct, allowing the healing cleaning waters of the spirit to wash away the veil and allow true sight.

Raziel had been able to see their true enemy from the beginning and this was why, because he had been purified before any of them had even known of it.

.

"_**Judging by the expression his face when he finally saw, his memories purified, the true form of his God; killing him might have been a mercy." **_

.

The horror etched already on his face was nothing compared to the sheer and utter shattering of illusions, the tearing down of stone preconceptions that were reflected in his eyes. It was almost too painful to watch. Before the eyes of the king of the Divus paraded the true horror of the false god. He could see its true form and he could not close his eyes to it.

Kain bored in inexorably, not letting go of the Divus until he was sure that the job had been done. The king of the Divus almost seemed to glow with the energy of spirit, the ultimate element.

When the scion of balance finally released him, he was rigid with his eyes open so wide it seemed to be willing them to pop out.

"No..." His voice came out as a strangled sob, his head slowly shaking back and forth. There was a deep pain in his eyes, a hurt far beyond anything Kain could compare. "No ... it can't be..."

There could be no comfort for him now, only the truth. Kain knelt down onto one knee to look him in the eye.

"What you see is the truth."He said in as stern a voice as he could manage. He forced the defeated enemy to look at him square in the eye. "Do you see it? Do you see how vile he truly is? Do you see how empty his promises are?"

Raziel-Divus was trembling violent and he began to almost babble incoherently, his face twisting back and forth but unable to break his eye contact with the vampire.

"The lord is our shepherd..." He managed, his tongue twisting inside his mouth. Kain smiled ironically.

"Yes... I imagine he is." He agreed. "The problem with shepherds though is that they guard their flock not out of any fatherly affection but because they eventually plan to sheer and eat them."

Heedless of his wounds Raziel-Divus' hands flew to his eyes finally breaking that painful contact between them. His trembling became more then he could control and he collapsed completely to the ground sobbing uncontrollably.

"NO!" He wailed his voice muffled by his hands. Kain stood up with a sigh.

"How many did you have killed in the ancient war? All to feed him?" He shook his head and looked over at the others, two all stood around him with varying degrees of contempt and pity on their faces.

A clanking caught Kain's attention and he turned to see that stepping out of a side passage that lead into the keep itself was Umah. She had the metallic pieces of Ashar's vessel with her keeping, kept safe inside a dirty bag of canvas. She walked right up to them and Raziel did not so much as bat an eyelid at her presence, his gazed firmly fixed in pitying disgust on the crumbled defeated foe before them.

Umah joined them standing by Kain's side silently. It was over they had won and now a new chapter was opening before them all. Kain did not know what to expect from this new journey they would undoubtedly all take. His own odyssey was not at all what he expected, filled with revelations and enemies he had never even expected. What else would fate throw his way before this war was over?

Slowly it began to snow again heavily, not a blizzard but a soft drifting down of thick heavy flakes. The misty flakes drifted across the mountain and were everywhere within a few minutes, as if nature intended to bury all trace of the battle in the permanent frost of the north. The fallen king of the Divus just lay there, silently letting the blanket of white cover him uninterrupted. Then, just as Kain began to wonder if his enemy had succumbed to his severe injuries, Raziel-Divus burst up with his arms reaching high above his head. Kain slide back a pace, his hand halfway to the hilt of the Reaver. Others made similar motions, Raziel holding his right hand up as if he were about to call his own ghost sword.

His face was contorted with pain and self loathing, his lips pulled back in a grimace of despair. His eyes were locked on the sky above unblinkingly at something that it seemed only he could see.

"PLEASE!" He begged in a shrill voice that voiced across the mountainside. His tone was pleading. "ANWSER ME!"

With a desperate agony he called out.

"KEEPER!"

There was a long moment as his voice echoed back to them several times. Then Kain felt it, that undeniable sense of overwhelming presence. Slowly the vampire turned to look up at the clouds above them.

The thick grey clouds were roiling, slipping and sliding around each other with the movements of a river through thick mud. There was something there, a colossal shape that behind the clouds was but a mere suggestion of a silhouette. But the suggested shade of something so huge was more than enough to cause the others around him to flinch back in awe.

Bits and pieces began to break the cloud cover then, a massive blue and green fin here, a suggestion of a mammoth underbelly. Then finally the head emerged, preceded by the four curving ivory tusks. The head was perhaps about the size of bastion fortress itself and with it hovering above them the five staring eyes with their otherworldly yellow glow made it all the more ominous.

The king of Fanum-Divus had called out to the Keeper. And the Keeper had responded.


	51. 50 Raziel Absolution

The thick miles long body of the entity coiled around the very mountain itself, rising and falling like a serpent through the sea of clouds the falling snow doing nothing to obscure its enormity from view. Raziel remembered this entity quite well, having run across it hiding on the ocean floor in the corrupt future he had left behind. In this era, it was still strong and powerful enough to hide itself in the skies and storm clouds.

Ewoden was staring up at the god like creature, having reverted back to his human form in a moment of shock. He stood there trembling with wide eyes, mouth agape.

"What..." He began but his tongue seemed to freeze in his mouth, so immense was his awe and fear. Kain held up one hand to steady them all, not taking his eyes from that immense face.

"Do not be alarmed." He said. Ewoden shut his mouth and snorted, still shaking.

"A bit late for that, my friend." He replied.

Slowly and ponderously the great mammoth head turned to regard the kneeling form before them, one large yellow eyes rotating in its rocket to regard the fallen king of the Divus. The injured and defeated scribe of heaven kept his face turned up towards the creature, his breath hoarse and ragged.

"Raziel-Divus..." The keeper began in a voice that echoed as if spoken from inside a deep vault. There was in that voice a sense of agelessness, as if it spoke to all moments in time and space rather than this one event. "Since you affixed that 'Divus' to your name you have not called on me. It has been a millennia and more since you even thought of me."

Kain started and cast a glance down at their enemy who seemed to no longer notice any of the rest of them were there. Raziel joined him in staring, not quite grasping what was being implied.

"You mean... he once served you?" The vampire asked, turning to look back up at the creature. The Keeper did not nod, most likely because if it did they would be crushed beneath its massive tusks. Rather the light in his eyes dimmed sadly.

"He was once a convert, one of few I had amongst the ancient vampires who preferred me over the Wheel of Fate." It said slowly. "But then the Elder told him of his destiny, warping the vision into a thing of horror rather than of purpose so that in desperation and chagrin he turned his back on me."

All the eyes rotated on that flat face like a whales to look at Raziel-Divus directly. There was no reprimand in that gaze; no judgement nor condemnation.

"He betrayed me, to serve the other."

The fallen king's face contorted with guilt.

"I was wrong..." He managed to say but that was about all before his throat was clenched in a sob.

"And can you finally admit that now, broken, beaten and surrounded by enemies?" The Keeper asked sadly in reply with the coils of its body looping back and forth around the Bastion. "Can you only admit that now... at the very end?"

The fallen king of the Divus said nothing, only knelt that in pleading from the god he had forsaken.

The contempt and loathing Raziel had for him began to ebb away at that point. For all his arrogance and unreasoning zeal, his past incarnation had proved now that he had one golden virtue. He was willing to admit when he was wrong.

Suddenly, the defeated and broken body of their enemy began to rise up into mid air until he hovered before him perhaps a few feet of the ground. Surrounded by a white glow he hung there almost listless with his arms hung loosely at his eyes. His face however was puzzled and confused as he looked upon his former god.

"You were once a great scholar who learned much from me, you had a purpose and destiny I had intended for you to fulfil." The Keeper explained and slowly the glow surrounding the former king of the Divus grew more intense.

"But the temptations of power and immortality were too much to resist from the Elder, weren't they?"

By now the glow was too bright to look at directly and Raziel had to squint, watching his former incarnation slowly being consumed by it.

"You thought that by serving him over me that he would shield you, raise you up above the threads of destiny and keep you whole?"

The light engulfing him flowed in the mounds he had received and watching, Raziel saw them all heal over one by one. The wings Kain had torn away did not grow back however, but were rather smoothed over so that there was no trace that there ever had been wings.

"Fear not." The entity above them said and that light became a sphere of force surrounding their enemy, encapsulating him completely. "Destiny comes to you now, not as an agony but as a release."

The last glimpse Raziel had of his past incarnation's face showed his expression of confusion giving way to a profound revelation and a gratitude so overwhelming that all the arrogance and self importance almost seemed to bleed out of him.

"Let yourself go..." The keeper said to him comfortingly. "...into absolution."

Then the ball of force became all encompassing and Raziel-Divus disappeared completely from view. Raziel had to bring a hand up to shield his eyes from the sudden flare. The air was filled with a powerfully loud thrumming noise that pulsed so intensely the blue wraith could feel it inside his skull.

Looking out through the gaps between his talons however he could faintly make out a shape within the light and that shape was shrinking, flowing down and down until it was perhaps no larger than the length of his forearm.

Out from the bottom of the orb of light dropped bits and pieces of the items of clothing Raziel-Divus had been wearing. Whatever armour was left clattered to the floor, followed by a chainmail undercoat and finally a white toga smeared with blood.

Then finally the light died away and the object within that light floated gently down to lie on the ground.

Ewoden stared at what lay before them now, blinking several times in confusion.

"The pack will never believe me when I tell them about this." He breathed, almost slack jawed.

Raziel stared as well, coming to the forefront to look down at the new form of the scribe of heaven.

.

"_**The life of my past incarnation was over and our second began. Before me laid a shivering human infant, the half way point between the Scribe of Heaven and myself." **_

.

The human baby looked as if it had just been born, mewling and wailing in the cold. Atop its head was a thick shock of raven black hair over a red face twisted in its cries.

With a dawning sort of wonder, Raziel realised that he was looking at the baby version of the Sarafan inquisitor who would one day murder Janos Audron and tear from him his heart.

The very man Raziel would run through with the Reaver in the chapel of the Sarafan stronghold.

It was strangely symmetrical, to be present and instrumental in his birth as well as his death.

Not quite knowing why, he tenderly reached out and picked the infant up holding the baby close to try and keep him warm in whatever way he could. It felt very odd, to hold this baby in his arms and know he was holding himself.

Absolution, what was what the Keeper had called this. For forgive his former acolyte for his mistakes, the Keeper had erased them simply by giving him a new life to lead. Of course Raziel knew quite firmly that he would make all knew mistakes both as a human and as a vampire but history would lead him from this baby to the ruined form he was now.

He had grown in many ways and finally he felt satisfied with himself. He had come back and endured much and he felt as if he had come to be that which he was supposed to be.

He turned to look up at the Keeper then, wondering what might have drawn him to this entity in worship before the Elder had warped his perceptions.

The vampire himself had not taken his eyes off of the god like being at all and the Keeper looked down now to meet his gaze.

"The time of reckoning draws near, Kain... Raziel." It said to them both and its voice now was sharp and direct. "The time when the game will be over, one way or the other."

Kain's expression pulled down into a frown of concern.

"The promised day?" He asked and Raziel recognised the term from Ewoden's words of the end game the Divus had planned for their enemies.

Slowly the Keeper was rising back up into the clouds, slipping its long snake like body back into hiding.

"Indeed. You have now entered the time of preparation. It will be a storm the likes of which Nosgoth has never endured before. But know this; the wasteland from which you hail is not beyond redemption. There is a means to restore it through the coming danger. Do not let opportunity slip through your fingers."

Then the god like being turned and plunged back into the clouds, trailing its long green dorsal thin through the haze.

"For what it is worth to you in whatever any of you believe..." It said in parting, the sound of its voice fading away. "My benediction upon you all."

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Thirty years before the murder of Janos Audron, perhaps two or three leagues to the northwest of the great southern lake, there was a small peasant farmstead. It was a quiet lower class hamlet with a central cottage, a barn and a stable.

Surrounding the buildings were perhaps several acres of land that were tilled and fenced off, corn and wheat sprouting up in the beginning of the summer growth. It was late evening and the sun had turned red and was dipping belong the horizon when the head farmer made began back towards the house. With his scythe slung over one shoulder and his other hand carrying his rake he sloughed on tiredly until he came to his own front door.

He yawned, placed his tools in the wooden outside closest and reached out to turn the door handle.

It was only about then that he noticed the crude basket placed to one side, and what was in that basket. He stared down at the buddle wrapped baby for a long moment, gaping at it in stunned amazement before he nearly tore the door open.

"Helena!" He bellowed inside. "Come out here!"

A dumbly woman came to the door, her apron stained with fresh and old gravy spots. Her face was cross and set into a scowl.

"What is it?" She demanded but when she saw what he was pointing at, she recoiled back in a stunned motion.

"Oh!" She exclaimed and was quick to pick the basket up, looking down at the infant who was sniffling loudly. "Did you see anyone leave it here?" She looked up at the farmer.

"No, nobody." He replied, scratching the back of his head and then looking down at the dusty trail leading up to the door.

"Not even any tracks in the dirt."

The woman looked the baby over tenderly, then frowned as she reached under the dirty clothe wrapping that was serving as a pillow. She pulled out a small folded sheet of parchment and opened.

"Look there's a note." She said. The farmer leaned over to look at it and frowned with her.

"The hand writing is abdominal." He said critically.

"I think it's a name." The woman replied with a raised eyebrow.

"What's it say?"

"Raziel."

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From undergrowth some distance away, Raziel watched as the couple took the child inside the house. The baby would be taken care of now, either here or put up for adopt elsewhere. But the cohesion of history was secure either way.

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"_**Now was my circular destiny finally complete. I had filled in all the gaps. The boy would grow up into the murderer of Janos Audron and I would kill him, leaving his body for Kain to resurrect as a vampire. My past finally settled with no loose ends, I could turn my attention towards the future."**_

_**.**_

Deliberately he turned his back on the cottage and walked away, heading directly north to where the Chronoplast waited. Kain had taken them to this time first in order to ensure the fluid continuation of Raziel's destiny and now it was time to take another step through time back to the future, to the wasteland they were all fighting to save.

"My hand writing's abdominal, is it?" He muttered to himself as he walked. "I'd like to see them hold a quill with talons."

There was much to do now and the blue wraith was not entirely sure of all of it. There were many twists and turns to even recent events that still left him feeling puzzled and confused, but the essential point was quite clear. Now they needed to discover what precisely this 'Promised Day' entailed and to prepare for it.

He cast a glance to his left down at the shield there, strapped to his arm. As he had surmised the device would now indeed travel back and forth between the realms with him. It was an interesting and welcome prize and a reminder that he never become like his past self ever again. This would keep him locked rigidly on the path of inner progression.

This shield and her. Turning, he regarded the ghostly apparition of the woman he had grown to adore floating alongside him. She was looking at him with that same expression of pride on her uncorrupted face, her long blonde hair flowing in ethereal winds.

"Do you want to confront Kain now?" The blue wraith asked her. Ariel paused to think about it and then smiled, shaking her head.

"In a short while, when I am prepared." She replied, laying one transparent hand across the side of his cheek. "For now, let us return to the others and to our own time."

Raziel looked at her and nodded and together they turned to face the north and the future.


	52. Epilogue

The bodies of the fallen Divus, Metatron and Ambraxas, were laid out with full ceremony upon the white alter in the middle of the hallowed ground of the ascended. Their wounds had been dressed and the corpses had been dressed in full honorary golden robes. The two bodies were placed so that all could see them and pass by the corpses laying their respects, although a troop of well armed homunculi kept people out of arms reach.

The hallowed ground was a large central square ringed by luxurious gardens that play on the top of the massive statue made up by the city buildings, made in the likeness of their fallen king. This was the central gathering place for the chosen and where events of importance were announced.

Asmodeus stared down at Metatron's body, pleased with the alteration Ophiel had made to the cadaver, giving it a scar across the neck to make it appear the once mighty warrior had fallen in battle rather than being struck from behind.

The crowd gathered in the space below were not all Divus. There were, after all, less than five hundred beings with the title 'Divus' added to their names. The mass majority of the throng were composed of lesser favoured souls, servants of heaven and honoured warriors. A few were slaves brought up to serve the needs of their masters. Asmodeus did not personally approve of letting the lower classes see beyond their station but he supposed this was a unique event that warranted some leeway.

At the moment he was far too jubilant to let anything spoil his mood. The time had finally come.

Somewhere, a massive gong was struck. The sound radiated through the air and the crowd's dull roar of conversation began to die away, heads turning. Even the slaves looked up.

That was his signal. Asmodeus started forward up the ivory steps one by one, his smile broadening. When he reached the top he stood upon the stood upon the pinnacle of battlements overlooking the hallowed ground, polished marble platforms standing above the rest of Fanum-Divus.

Awaiting him there was his ever loyal servant, Ophiel. She bowed her head to him, eyes to the floor as he passed by. He ignored her. Asmodeus gaze was focused upon the item that rested upon the seat of the throne facing towards the square. The crown of heaven, the symbol of the highest station of authority, was everything he had imagined it to be. Raziel-Divus had refused to wear it even to important events. That had been prudent on the former kings part, considering how tainted of soul he was. But Asmodeus stared at the crown longingly, knowing that he was worthy to place it upon his brow.

But he could not simply take it, despite all his machinations till now. There was one final hurdle to jump.

"Asmodeus-Divus." The voice that spoke, seemingly out of thin air, silenced the entire crowd; indeed the entire colossal city. It was heard everywhere and seemed to echo deeply through the corridors of eternity.

Asmodeus dropped down onto one knee, facing the throne. The seat itself was mostly unimportant but it was set into a long stone obelisk with the symbol for eternity, the Moebius ring, engraved into its pinnacle. Through this medium came the voice of their master, the Hub of the Wheel of Fate and the Lord God himself.

All over the city of Fanum-Divus, the beings that dwelt near dropped to their knees and pressed their faces to the floor in utter submission.

"My selected avatar, the Scribe of Heaven, has finally completed his circle." The voice continued, half to itself. "And now he is lost to me."

"He served your cause and your noble purpose as much as he was able, my lord." Asmodeus intoned keeping his face down. "And we weep that his current incarnation is our enemy."

The voice of God was silent for a moment before Asmodeus felt its full attention on him.

"You speak true, my servant." It said. "Speak to me, your council."

That was the invitation he needed and Asmodeus raised his head.

"Since the first, Raziel-Divus has been the scribe. We all knew that his time was finite. That time has come and now we must announce his replacement." When the disembodied voice did not immediately reply, the Divus pushed on. "My lord, allow me to fill his shoes and I will continue to serve you and the grand rhythm of the universe. Conflict shall continue and death shall rain down. The Wheel will turn and upon my soul I pledge to you that the fallen apostates will flee from your wrath."

It was a rehearsed speech but it had the desired effect. After only a brief moment of silence the crown upon the thrown began to rise up. It floated there in mid air, the jewels set into the metal emitting an otherworldly green glow.

"You have the soul and passion of a Scribe of Heaven, a king in my service." Their God, the Elder, announced in reverent tones as the crown floated forward. "Be the spinner of the Wheel... Asmodeus-Divus, King of my chosen."

After so long a wait, Amodeus felt his soul ready to burst with elation as he felt the crown settle around his head.

In response, the crowd below got back up to their feet and roared in approval, recognising his new authority with the benediction their god had laid upon him.

The crown sparkling on his head, Asmodeus smiled and turned to gaze upon his new subjects. The game had been long and complex, a session of political chess which had involved players from across the spectrum. But the effort, the patience and the planning, had all been worth it. Raziel-Divus had had to be removed of course, he was a poor monarch marred by his impure destiny and would only have brought disaster to Fanum-Divus.

It had always brought him intense anger and frustration that such a flawed servant should win so much confidence to ever be awarded the title 'scribe of heaven' and become King. As much as he would never publically fault their lord, his judgement in this particular had been dubious from the start. But at last all was as it should be, or at least close enough for the rest to fall into place.

This was a day of renewal, of rejuvenation and of course... of change. It was a change that some would not like but was entirely necessary and of course those that dissented too much would be dealt with.

He raised his hands to the crowd of Divus before his dais throne, gesturing for silence. After a moment the multitude began to calm down.

Asmodeus smiled warmly at them and began into his second well rehearsed speech, the prelude to the performance to come.

"This day you have seen the death of a king and the coronation of a new one." He intoned loudly and through the skills of his aide standing just behind his throne, the crowd heard him. "Such an event is unique and unprecedented for our blessed realm." His voice carried further than them, echoing deep into the many labyrinthine corridors of the angelic city so that even the slave race would hear him speak. None would be ignorant of his ascension this day.

"But do not despair. We have not lost to the dark ones, the black Nefastus. Indeed we cannot loose. It is impossible."

He was of course pandering to his audience's elated and zealot driven ego. Belief in ones own invincibility was one thing but he needed them fired up, angry and filled with drive for it to work to his advantage.

"Kain's efforts have not hindered us, nor even slowed us. The work of the fallen Ambraxas will be finished in his absence and soon. The Ark will fly! We are the ones who still stand at the end of days, victorious to receive our reward; the passage to the heavens themselves!"

His purposely changed his expression, chosen to be his sternest and most grim.

"But even so we cannot let his actions or those of his allies go unpunished. Nosgoth was purged once before but we let compassion sway us and corruption was allowed to ensure." He clenched a fist and held it up high. "This time we will stamp it out! This time we will leave no stone unturned, no crevice unexplored in pursuit of those who stand in opposition to our authority!"

His speech caught their ire and they roared their agreement, the noise of the crowd deafening. Despite his glee at having roped them in, Asmodeus did not smile. This last act required a great deal of play in order to get them involved emotionally.

This time he didn't wait for their emotional response to die away but talked over them, Ophiel using her own abilities in blessed sorcery to raise the volume of his voice above the melee of sound.

"And we shall do so in the guise most appropriate to this task!" He declared and turning, beckoned for two figures behind the throne to step forward. As they came, Asmodeus addressed the crowd once more. "Lost to the time streams now due to meddling by the unspoken and Kain, was an unstoppable army. Although merely human they exemplified the true qualities of the soldiers of heaven and the lord."

The two figures approaching the edge of the platform were of the slave race, chosen for their muscular build and devotion to training and of course to his cause. The armour they wore had been carefully crafted for its visual effect.

It was made of blood red plates over jet black mail, the helmet pushed forward in an almost draconic visor that hid the face entirely. Across the armour's pauldrons and crest of the helm, spikes made of bone had been screwed in to stand out prominently giving them a very demonic appearance. The facade was completed by the goat horns attached to either side of the main helmet. On one side of their belts hung a broadsword sword and on the other a double headed battle axe. The two of them beside him looked big and intimidating and the crowd of Divus stirred, not in puzzlement but expectant confusion. They were waiting for him to explain.

Asmodeus could not help but smile; now he had them.

"Chosen of the lord our God! He called out to them. "It is time to become that which our faithful amongst the mortals have desired us to be! To galvanise ourselves into the unstoppable legion! To set ourselves steadfastly against our enemies and let them know their nemesis has come!"

Even from this distance he could see the hungry and jubilant look in their eyes. With expert finesse he hooked them and reeled them in.

"Let us reform ourselves into the TRUE Legions of the Nemesis!"

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The dark cellars beneath even the catacombs of his castle had been sealed off for some considerable time, allowing fungus and other luminous forms of growth to spread over the doorway. The chamber had been insulted against the water and the air was dry and musty smelling. Stepping forward, Vorador entered the chamber and looked around with a growing expression of displeasure. Behind him, Sally stood off to one side keeping her gaze averted from the chambers interior but looking decidedly sheepish all the same.

The light from the outside penetrated only a few feet but it was far enough. The room was a large antechamber with a vaulted high ceiling and a curving circular floor around a dais where a stone sarcophagus lay. Alone the floor were metal grates through which running water from the castles many aqueducts was running; a complex drainage system to keep the castle dry on these rain soaked islands. The chamber was clearly intended to be a tomb but had been usurped for another purpose.

Covering the walls were thick slimy pods each about the size of a horse, membranous bulges covered in thick yellow mucus like substance. They were attached by organic tendrils to the walls themselves and were gathered together in large groups like spiders eggs. Each sack was rhythmically moving in and out, as if breathing and they extruded a nose wrinkling smell.

Sally had not meant to tell her lord about the existence of this chamber until much later, once he had settled down and taken stock of the situation abroad on the mainland and perhaps taken the time to tend to the still incapacitated Janos Audron. But he had pressed the issue, demanding to know what had happened to the rest of the Cabal during his absence. She could not directly lie to him for while she was last active vampire of their race left she was hardly the last left alive.

And so she head led him to this chamber, where she had watched her siblings and blood kin go into hibernation to wait for the time when their master awoke.

Vorador was not impressed.

"When I went into sleep myself, I did not mean for the Cabal to follow my example." He said, his voice echoing in the vaulted room. He spoke not only to his ward at his side by also to the chamber itself, to the sacks covering the walls. "I would have thought you could survive without me."

"Sire..." Sally began stepping forward, coming to the defence of her kin. Her taloned feet clacked on the stone surface louder then she meant them to and Vorador turned to look back at her over his shoulder, his face a mask of stern judgementalism. "The others saw no purpose to going on without a purpose, without you to give us that purpose."

Vorador's glare and tone was full of scorn.

"Are you all so like children that you need adults to tell you what to do?" He asked. Sally opened her mouth to reply but he silenced her with a gesture, holding up one hand. She shut her lips tightly in her reprimand.

Vorador turned again and looked back up the fleshly bulbs around them, some covering the ceiling so that little of the wall would actually be seen.

"This is abhorrent." He said in disgust. "The Cabal are supposed to rule these islands, even if it is our exile. Yet my children lock themselves into a tomb like ghouls and sleep."

"Sire, is that not what you did?" Sally asked. Vorador flinched slightly at the reminded but stiffened with indignation.

"True..." He eventually conceded in a flatter one. "But the time for wallowing in self pity has long since past." With purpose in his stride the ancient vampire crossed over to where the nearest of the pupating sacks lay, dripping slime onto the floor.

Without pause he drove the talons of his left hand directly into the sac and tore down. Sally started but paused as her sire ripped through the fleshy skin of the pod. Slime from inside slopped out, a thick yellow mixed with streaks of red. Amongst the slime was a defined shape that Vorador caught tenderly with both hands and pulled free of the pod. Carrying the slime coated bundle to the side of the stone dais he laid it out. It was man shaped but so thickly covered it was hard to tell more than that.

Vorador set to wiping the body clean of the mucus which had kept it in is suspended animation so long. Within lay the prone body of another of the Cabal.

Isolated on this island so long, the Cabal had evolved to their environment. Like Sally the vampire Vorador stared down at was covered in small scales with jagged barbs running across his hips and collarbone. Sally's scales were a dusty brown and gold while this one had scales that were more of a pale green. He was of medium height and had a well built body which had not suffered from its slumber inside the pod.

Vorador knew him. His name was Alaric. When he had been human had had been a mercenary warrior fighting for the highest bidder and had been Turned by Vorador at the start of the Cabal's creation. He was one of the first of his children, who had survived the disaster of the attack on Meridian, the two centuries of fascist Sarafan rule and the brief civil war with Kain's own brood. The vampire gasped with a wheeze and, acting on instinct at first, Vorador held his wrist to the mouth.

Fangs punctured the skin in an instant, red life giving blood oozing from the wound to be drained in a ravenous and eventually unconscious feeding. Alaric's eyes were still closed and he was feeding, entirely by subconscious reaction.

Vorador let him feast for perhaps a whole minute before he firmly disengaged him and laid his head back down.

Sally watched from the sidelines as Alaric laid there, mouth agape with blood running from one corner down over his cheek. The body laid still and silent for a moment and then with a sudden burst he arched his back and gasped with suddenly new life.

Alaric swung up into a sitting position, his chest heaving. He was bald so his smooth head and its many scales reflected the light from the passage beyond the entrance. His eyes bulged and he looked around in confusion, first at Sally and then to his creator.

Laying eyes on Vorador he paused and at first did nothing. Perhaps his body was still recovering from its sudden awakening to allow him to respond but with some effort he cleared his throat.

"M...m...master?" He croaked and then coughed, spitting up some of his pod's mucus which had become lodged inside his windpipe. Vorador shook his injured wrist until it healed and then nodded once.

"Yes my son, I am here." He replied. Alaric turned his head to look at Sally as if seeking confirmation. Since Alaric was older then she in the hierarchy of the Cabal he technically outranked her but her volunteering to stake awake and a sentinel when the others went into sleep had given her a unique position of authority. With a bit of surprise, she also realised that since she had been awake and they had not, she might very well have evolved past them and was thus stronger.

She nodded to him anyway to cover her own confusion.

"Master, I had ..." He started, faltered in guilty surprise and then tried again. "Forgive me master, I had thought you might never wake up... I despaired."

Vorador laid a hand on his slimy shoulder but his expression was stern.

"There is no time for despair." He told his offspring. "There is much to be done and a future to be grasped." The ancient vampire gestured with a flick of his chin up at the other pods still all around the chamber. "I have need of my children to awaken from their dreams."

Sally and her elder sibling looked up at him wide eyes at his use of the word 'children'. Vorador had rarely used that designate when referring to the Cabal, because to him there had only been one true child; an ideal they had tried and failed to live up to.

He left them with the order to awaken the Cabal one by one and feed them their stock pile of human blood, stored in the Serioli method, until they were at full strength again. Vorador was going to need his children able to fight and defend themselves for when the Hylden finally elected their new House leaders and resumed their efforts to whip the world clean of vampires.

His realm was a small selection of rocky archipelago islands far to the south west of the Nosgoth mainland. It had been to these islands that Kain had banished him and his brood after the short lived civil war. The Cabal had adapted and galvanised the humans they had brought with them into a prime breeding stock, using the ruins of the Hylden city they found here to built their own stronghold and castle.

The existence here had been one of black banishment and isolation and Vorador had squatted here, sinking in upon him. Surrounded by unceasing gloomy thoughts he had brooded until he sequestered himself and gone into a deep sleep to wait out the time until the end of days came. Raziel had brought him out of his apathetic slumber and stirred his interest in the world and its new politics. Events of proportions were coming to ahead and Vorador had to be sure that his section of it at least would weather the storm.

The alliance with the Serioli ancients in their sanctuary of Kain's mountain retreat had allowed him to keep abreast of events within the fortified and established Hylden nation. While the Hylden had been demoralised and shocked into stalled, their politics were coming to ahead. Soon new leaders would be chosen and then the onslaught would begin again.

"And so your stir yourself finally, my old friend." A sultry and smooth female voice with an exotic accent asked as he entered his castle's central dining hall to await the awakening Cabal. Glancing to one side the ancient vampire saw that sitting cross-legged upon a windowsill with her back to the glass was a Hylden woman; by far the fairest of them with unblemished features and silky uncorrupted skin.

He knew her of course. They had such an interesting history together.

"I must say this new proactive stance of yours..." The Seer said with a smile. "...it suits you." Vorador flicked one large ear and then smiled back in turn.

"After so many thousands of years, I'm just tired of letting depression rule me."

The Hylden Seer, immortal like the rest of her race due to their connection to the energies of the demon dimension, continues to smile but she shook her head at him ruefully.

"Did it really take you that long to do so, Vorador?" She asked. Vorador narrowed his eyes and crossed the hall to look out the window next to her at the choppy sea, arms folded in the small of his back.

"The world gave me little reason to change my opinion." He said but she pointed a finger sideways him.

"Until now." She added. Vorador controlled his expression but despite centuries of trying he could not control the reaction of his ears. They would either move up or down depending on his mood, a process that seemed entirely independent from his control. She was right and he knew it and it bothered him immensely that had wasted so much time consumed by self pity.

"Oh my dear Vorador." The Seer sighed. "You have taken the first step all by yourself but the time has come for you to take more."

He turned his head to look sidelong at her, an eyebrow arched up in silent inquiry.

"If you have come to tell me something..." He started but she cut him off.

"I have come to set you upon the path to your destiny." The Seer said. "I did this first with Kain, then Raziel... now it is your turn." She reached up and laid a finger upon the tip of his nose. "It is time Vorador, to free your soul and for you to know and claim your birthright... your heritage."

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_**Kain and Raziel return to their roles in the game but another piece comes into play, a piece who had long denied his responsibilities but will learn of his importance and delve secrets left for him to find. Vorador uncovers his birthright in Legacy of Kain: Heritage. Coming Soon!**_

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Authors notes:

WELL...

Didn't THAT take some time and effort to write... phew...

Firstly a BIG thank you to be BETA editors. You saved me from making many grammar and spelling mistakes. Hope you guys stick around

Well I hoped you enjoyed Absolution. Stick around, because coming soon Vorador gets his chance to shine. Can I tell a Nosgoth story from neither the point of view of Kain OR Raziel and still make it as much like Eidos' excellent work? Well I'm certainly going to try. For those of you who know where my DA page is hang around there for an introductory Comic. But what I'd like to do is for you guys to gimme your ideas and feedback.

I wanna know what you think about the following dilemmas about how to portray Vorador and his story:

1) What powers should he use?

2) What locations would you like him to revisit? (from any previous games or my stories)

3) What characters 'Official LOK or from my stories' do you wanna be included and why?

4) What time periods do you want ol' Vorry to muddle through and why

5) Just for fun, is Vorador did get his own game, what would the gameplay be like?

6) So far I've used a great deal from Babylon, Jewish and Christian mythology. Any other references from folklore you think would be good in LOK and why?

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Used References:

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"You're nothing but a grave robber Kain." – This line was taken directly from the uncut version of the Soul Reaver script.

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Elzievr – (I hope everyone understood what happened there. I wanted to include the dollmaker in order to tidy up that loose end from Blood Omen 1 and it was a unique experience for Raziel to go through.)

Alicia Ottmar and Ewoden - (like Sally from Soul Reaver3 they were from my previous fanfictions and adapted here, hopefully better than they were before. Ewoden will have a larger role in a future story. )

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Dolls – well aside from the 'Dollmaker' connection, if you want to know my real inspiration for this, go to youtube and type in 'destination truth island of the dolls' thank you for cheap supernatural documentaries!

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Malek's bastion and the possessed armour – (I'm sure a few LOK nerds realised that, yes, I plagiarised here. Some of you will have heard about the cancelled game after Defiance 'the Dark prophecy'. Concept art made for the game revealed that there would be Hylden souls inside armour. The Nexus' stones forging chamber came from BETA screenshots. Will I continue to pinch ideas from the dark prophecy? Like hell I will)

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Pipers – well I was inspired for these guys by the Blood Omen concept art you'll find at Nosgoth dot net and I vaguely remember them being enemies of some kind in the game. I played to the pied piper of Hamelin story there.

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Ashar – briefly mentioned at the end of Soul Reaver 3 and now greatly expanded. Is he gone for good? Well I'm not telling you, wait until I write more and find out. If you want to know what he looks like, again look up the Hylden king design from the Dark Prophecy concept art.

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Ophiel – angelic spirit, actually a man in mythology

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Asmodeus – king of lust demons from Jewish mythology

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Ambraxas – spelt 'Abraxas' in mythology, was originally an Egyptian god made into an angel by later scribes

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Metatron- Jewish angel. It was VERY hard not typing 'Megatron' every time I wrote his name. Last thing I want is to accidentally cross over LOK with transformers.


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